What would this region look like, if Cleveland became a hot spot for incubating these type of businesses?
[A] growing number of businesses operate under the twin mandates of making a profit while maintaining a sense of strong social purpose. Co-op America’s Business Network, a membership network for for-profits that fit this dual profile, has gone from around 500 businesses in the mid-1990s to about 3,000 today… [A] 2006 report released by Co-op America’s sister organization, Social Investment Forum, shows community investing assets growing to $20 billion in 2005 from $4 billion in 1995.
Allen Grossman, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School, says businesses with a strong social core have been around for a long time, but the niche is expanding. “People are experimenting a great deal in this area because of deficiencies in the capital markets for nonprofits,” he says. “They aren’t necessarily aligned when it comes to [measuring] good performance.”
