Social Enterprise & Impact — 2026-07-28

Key Highlights

Thailand's Corporate Social Enterprise Push

Thailand's leading corporations have joined forces with government agencies to establish 928 district-based social enterprise companies nationwide, aiming to strengthen local economies and create lasting social impact during the country's two auspicious royal years in 2026 and 2027.

SignLab Wins BCG's 2026 Social Enterprise Award

SignLab, a digital learning platform for sign language, has been named winner of the Social Enterprise Award, an initiative from Boston Consulting Group. The recognition highlights how digital innovation is addressing accessibility challenges in education and communication.

Stanford Impact Labs Funds New Social Research

Stanford Impact Labs has announced new investments to support research projects led by SIEPR senior fellows, including work examining social impact across diverse communities. The funding reflects growing academic focus on understanding how social enterprises create measurable change.

3 sources

consultancy.uk

d winner of the Social Enterprise Award, an initiative from Boston Consulting Group.

siepr.stanford.edu

siepr.stanford.edu

bangkokpost.com

bangkokpost.com

Analysis

This week's developments reveal how social enterprises are scaling at both the grassroots and institutional levels. Thailand's coordinated effort to establish nearly 1,000 district enterprises demonstrates government-corporate partnership as a viable model for rapid social economy expansion. SignLab's BCG award signals that technology-enabled social solutions—particularly those addressing marginalized communities like the deaf—are gaining recognition from major consulting firms, suggesting a shift toward valuing accessibility as core social impact.

Stanford's research investments underscore a broader trend: impact measurement and systems-level understanding are becoming essential to the field. Social innovation is increasingly framed not just as solving discrete problems but as addressing root causes and structural inequities.

What to Watch

B Corp Recertification Timeline

Companies recertifying in 2026 should note that SMEs are receiving a 12-month extension under B Lab's new standards framework, which launched in April 2025. However, even with extensions, businesses must transition to the new mandatory impact topics by their extended deadline.

Emerging Systems-Level Impact Approaches

Social innovation as peacebuilding—repairing systems that create harm—is gaining traction as a framework for understanding social enterprise work beyond transactional problem-solving. This positions social entrepreneurs as architects of systemic change.