ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the conceptualization of the social enterprise business model as suggested by many experts to be a possible conducive model for museums. It attempts to investigate different conceptualizations of the social enterprise business model within the museum context. The chapter also investigates two major museums: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, and Imperial War Museums in London, UK. With the double–bottom line approach, the social enterprise framework can help museums do good in their communities while doing well financially. More specifically, the definition states that a social enterprise is “a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners”. The first national survey of nonprofit social enterprises in the US was conducted by James C. Crimmins and Mary Keil in 1982.
