Nearly 7 in 10 Singapore firms scared of supporting social enterprises

Here are their reasons why.

In a release, the Social Enterprise Association (SE Association) announced survey findings today that reveal mainstream companies’ willingness to purchase fromm social enterprises (SEs) and even, provide in-kind support to this emerging group of businesses with social missions in their path to growth in non-commercial ways.

On purchasing from social enterprises: Among the 155 respondents, 13% were buyers of SE products and services, 21% were ready to buy from SEs (‘ready buyers’) and the remaining 66% (or nearly 7 in 10 companies) said they were not prepared to buy from SEs yet (‘non-buyers’).

On the motivation to buy from SEs: Among the buyers and ready buyers of SE products and services, 94% indicated that ‘Contribute back to society’ was a
motivating factor for their purchases while 75% indicated ‘Believed in the mission of a SE’ was a motivating factor.

Other factors shaping purchases from SEs: The most important factors that influence corporate purchasing decisions from SEs were ‘Quality of product or
service’ ‘Price’ and ‘Need for product or service’. This is similar to factors that shape purchases from regular businesses.

On why respondents might not have purchased anything from SEs: Among those who stated that they were not yet prepared to purchase from SEs, 62% indicated that ‘None of their products or services provided fulfills my company’s needs’ and 36% indicated that ‘I still do not fully understand what a SE is’ as reasons for not purchasing from SEs within the next 6 months.

Among the 155 respondents, 34% claimed that they were aware of SEs but only 14% of all respondents were able to recall at least one SE correctly. Between the LE and SME categories, a larger percentage of SMEs (72%) were not aware of SEs as compared to LEs (59%).