Changing the Taste of Social Enterprise

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumer motivations to visit a social enterprise café. A total of 150 consumers from Northern Ireland took part in a paper based survey. Participants were obtained using a quota sample based on ten of the social enterprise cafes registered within in the Belfast/Greater Belfast area (Northern Ireland Executive, 2012). Results were inputted into SPSS and analysed using correlations and t-tests to determine if socio-demographic differences in participants’ motivations and their visitation behaviour existed. The key findings indicated that consumers consider the social enterprise ethos to be an added benefit and not a core requirement for their patronage. Whilst there is a strong base of customers who visit social enterprises establishments due to their societal ethos, there is now an opportunity for social enterprises to target a wider audience, albeit the strategy must be built upon product offering not societal mission and aims.This is the initial part of a wider study and only high-level findings have been discussed at this stage.