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How Korea built one of the world’s most advanced social economy ecosystems
Many countries have the elements of a social economy: social enterprises, cooperatives, mutuals and community-based organisations addressing social and environmental challenges through economic activity. Fewer have brought those elements together into a coherent, recognised system that is actively supported and treated as part of the wider economy. Korea is one that has. In under two decades, it has assembled one of the most institutionally rich social economy ecosystems anywhere. That speed is an encouraging part of the story. It suggests that a mature social economy does not have to evolve over generations, but something a country can deliberately set out to build and achieve within a single working lifetime.
A joint report from SEWF and the Center for Social Value Enhancement Studies (CSES), Building Hybrid Ecosystems: Korea’s Experience and Global Lessons (2026), examines how this came about.
For policymakers, practitioners and ecosystem builders looking to strengthen the social economy in their own countries, Korea offers a rare example of what deliberate ecosystem building looks like in practice.
A foundation laid in law
Much of Korea’s progress can be traced to a decision to give social enterprise a formal footing. The Social Enterprise Promotion Act, introduced in 2007, established a national certification system and created the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency (KoSEA) to support the sector. Rather than leaving social enterprise to emerge at the margins, Korea gave it a formal place within public policy and built institutions around its development.
That legal foundation did more than establish social enterprise. Over time, it enabled the development of a more hybrid and diversified ecosystem, bringing together certified social enterprises, cooperatives, community enterprises, self-support enterprises and social ventures under an increasingly interconnected support system. What was once centred on a single certification framework now involves multiple policy actors, specialised support organisations, impact investors, corporate partners and local governments. The result is a social economy that is not defined by any one organisational form, but by the relationships and infrastructure that connect them.
Corporate leadership at scale
What sets Korea apart from most ecosystems is the active involvement of the private sector, particularly major businesses. SK Group, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, has placed social value at the centre of how it operates through its Double Bottom Line approach, which treats economic and social value as goals to be pursued together rather than traded against one another.
The clearest expression of this is the Social Progress Credit programme, launched in 2015 by SK Group with CSES. By rewarding social enterprises in proportion to the social value they create, the programme turns impact into something measurable and financially meaningful. To date, it has recognised more than USD 360 million in verified social value, with more than 400 social enterprises receiving over USD 52 million in incentives. When an organisation of that scale builds social value into its own performance, the effects extend beyond philanthropy into procurement, investment and the wider market.
Alongside this sits a deliberate effort on the demand side, where public procurement, social investment and corporate supply chains have been aligned around the shared aim of buying from social enterprises, rather than being left to operate in isolation.
An honest work in progress
For all its achievements, Korea’s ecosystem is not a finished model. It is best understood as a hybrid and living laboratory still working through real tensions. Growth driven substantially by government and large corporations has delivered results quickly, but it also raises questions about autonomy. How independent can organisations remain when key sources of support, legitimacy and market access are concentrated among large institutions? The breadth of the field is a genuine strength. Bringing together social enterprises, cooperatives, community enterprises, social ventures and other impact-driven organisations creates opportunities for collaboration across different approaches to social value creation. It also raises ongoing questions about how such a diverse ecosystem can best represent its shared interests. Corporate leadership has also played an important role in expanding markets, investment and innovation. As the ecosystem continues to mature, an important question is how these pioneering efforts can be broadened across a wider range of businesses, embedding social value creation more deeply within the mainstream economy. These are the tensions of a maturing ecosystem rather than signs of failure and Korea tends to confront them openly rather than gloss over them.
A roadmap for building one of your own
Korea’s path cannot be copied wholesale and the report is careful to set it beside Québec and Scotland precisely because ecosystems reach maturity by different routes. Yet beneath those differences sits a recognisable pattern. Countries that successfully build social economies tend to make a series of deliberate choices about recognition, infrastructure, markets, measurement and partnership.
- Give it a formal footing. Korea’s progress began with recognition: a legal definition and a certification system that made social enterprise visible to the government, investors and the public. Recognition is what unlocks everything that follows.
- Build the public infrastructure to match. A dedicated agency, such as KoSEA, turns political intent into day-to-day support, from certification and finance to training and data.
- Work the demand side, not only supply. Aligning public procurement, social investment and corporate purchasing around buying from social enterprises achieves more than supporting individual organisations in isolation.
- Make impact measurable, then reward it. Credible measurement can help build the confidence needed for financial mechanisms that recognise and reward social value, as the Social Progress Credit demonstrates.
- Bring business into ecosystem building. Corporate engagement is most powerful when businesses move beyond funding and become active partners in shaping markets, supporting innovation and strengthening the infrastructure that social enterprises need to grow.
None of this is linear and each step carries trade-offs of its own. But taken together they describe a path that is considerably shorter than most assume.
See it for yourself
The report offers the full account, including the policy detail, the finance mechanisms, practical social enterprise case studies and the comparative chapters and it is available to read in the SEWF Resource Library.
There is also an opportunity to see the ecosystem in action. This October, SEWF is convening its first Ecosystem Leadership Exchange in Korea, in partnership with SK Group and CSES, bringing a small group of senior leaders into direct contact with the policymakers, agencies, corporate leaders and social enterprises that make the system work.
Read Building Hybrid Ecosystems: Korea’s Experience and Global Lessons →
Find out about the Ecosystem Leadership Exchange, Korea, 11–15 October 2026 →
Building Hybrid Ecosystems: Korea’s Experience and Global Lessons (2026) is a joint publication of the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) and the Center for Social Value Enhancement Studies (CSES), Korea. Authors: Gerry Higgins, Andy Paterson, Gayoung Imm, Suk-Kwon Na, Myung-Eun Jeong, Hee-Jin Cho and Mihyun Yoo.
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