To invest or not to invest? the decision making on social enterprise investment

The rise of social enterprise investment and its thriving development grant entrepreneurs opportunities to create both social and commercial values. There are still barriers for investment, nevertheless. This paper attempts to identify the factors behind decision making of social enterprise investment. For data collection, we use semi-structured interview. As for the text analysis, software MAXQDA 10 is employed for the task. The result shows that the hybrid structure of social enterprise makes the business model appear to be more innovative, but at the same time increases transaction cost as well. It is close to pipedream for investors to seek both high engagement and risk aversion. Hence, an evaluation model is proposed: (1) In the first scenario, both parties with higher cost and risks in investment, better human resource, goods and services have to spend time establishing their relationships. (2) In the second scenario, investors tend to back out owing to the high cost, risk and poor business model. (3) The third scenario is the ideal type with business model full of potential; very little cost for the investors to take, and no high risks involved, which is uncommon. (4)In the fourth scenario, based on the social goals, the investors may choose non-financial engagement strategy instead. All of the results suggest investors that the current logical approach is to uphold the principle of locking on a single target, which means to focus on either the social impact or the financial return. As for the investors that seek a hybrid return, they may have to face a higher transaction cost.