Project Director: Rob Macmillan
Project Duration: 2020-2021

This project aims to explore how volunteering is understood and enacted in different ways in community business, and to identify the implications of this for volunteering experiences and outcomes. Qualitative research with eight case study community business research partners will address this and three supplementary questions:

• Organisation: How is volunteering conceptualised and managed within community business, and how does this affect the experience and outcomes of volunteering?
• Influence: What influence do volunteers have in the formation, strategic direction and operation of community businesses?
• Commercial context: What is the relationship between volunteering and the commercial orientation of community business?

The project team also includes Jon Dean (Sheffield Hallam University) and Angela Ellis Paine (University of Birmingham).