Professor Michael Roy

Prof Social Innovation & Sustainable Org

Management, Work and Organisation 3A20 Cottrell Building

Professor Michael Roy

Contact details

About me

Professor Michael Roy's primary area of research concerns social innovation, social enterprise and other ‘alternative’ economic forms. He has written extensively on the health and wellbeing impacts of social enterprises; on policy ‘ecosystems’ supporting the social economy; on collaborative governance and co-production involving nonprofits and the public sector; and on innovative and controversial funding mechanisms such as Social Impact Bonds. He is interested in the intersection of ideas such as social and solidarity economy/wellbeing economy, and social economy/circular economy.

His research is regularly guided by the critical realist philosophy, and he has worked on several realist evaluations, particularly focusing on 'what works, for whom, and in what circumstances' in complex community settings.

He has led several prominent research projects. Most recently these have included:

o Innovation and Creativity in the Third Sector in response to COVID-19: A Rapid Realist Evidence Synthesis. This was a project funded by the Scottish Government’s Office of the Chief Social Science Advisor (2022)

o Solidarity in a time of crisis: the role of mutual aid to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was funded by the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office (2020).

o In 2023, an interdisciplinary project funded by the AHRC called CommonHealth Catalyst involving partners from a range of public sector and third sector partners on the role of the voluntary and community sector in integrated health and care systems.

He was also co-Investigator on a major project funded by the National Institute for Health Research called CommonHealth Assets (2021-2025) undertaking an evaluation of the health and wellbeing impacts of community-led organisations in 'deprived' areas of the UK. Led by Glasgow Caledonian University, this involved working with a superb consortium drawn from partners from Queen's University Belfast, the University of Cambridge, Bournemouth University, and the University of East London.

In 2022 he was elected as Chair of the Development Trusts Association Scotland, the national membership body for organisations focused on community-led place-based socioeconomic development. He regularly advises national and international governments (e.g. the Scottish Government, the Government of Ontario) and international agencies (e.g. the ILO and OECD). In 2023-24 he was involved in a Scottish Government working group focused on the area of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation on Inclusive and Democratic Business Models, and, from 2025 - onwards, their working group on Economic Democracy.

Since 2020 he has been Editor-in-Chief of the longest established field journal on social enterprise, Social Enterprise Journal and, until recently, Associate Editor of Journal of Social Entrepreneurship. He serves on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Nonprofit and Social Economy Research, on Nonprofit Policy Forum, and formerly of Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations.

Social Enterprise Social Economy Co-production Circular Economy

Award

Association for Social Economics - Helen Potter Award of Special Recognition
The Helen Potter Award was created and endowed in 1975. It is presented each year to the author of the best article in the Review of Social Economy by a promising scholar of social economics.

Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS)

Research projects (1)

Outputs (89)

Article

Social Enterprise as a Pathway to Work, Wellness, and Social Inclusion for Canadians with Mental Illnesses and/or Substance Use Disorders Social Enterprise as a Pathway to Work, Wellness and Social Inclusion for Canadians with Mental Illnesses and/or Substance-Use Disorders’

Lysaght R, Packalen K, Krupa T, Ross L, Fecica A, Roy M & Brock K (2024) Social Enterprise as a Pathway to Work, Wellness, and Social Inclusion for Canadians with Mental Illnesses and/or Substance Use Disorders Social Enterprise as a Pathway to Work, Wellness and Social Inclusion for Canadians with Mental Illnesses and/or Substance-Use Disorders’. Canadian Journal of Nonprofit and Social Economy Research, 15 (1), pp. 1-22. https://doi.org/10.29173/cjnser635

Article

Common health assets protocol: a mixed-methods, realist evaluation and economic appraisal of how community-led organisations (CLOs) impact on the health and well-being of people living in deprived areas

Baker RM, Ahmed M, Bertotti M, Cassidy J, Chipuriro R, Clewett E, Donaldson C, Elders A, Fenge LA, Fox J, Galway K, Gildea A, McGuinness A, McLean J & Roy MJ (2023) Common health assets protocol: a mixed-methods, realist evaluation and economic appraisal of how community-led organisations (CLOs) impact on the health and well-being of people living in deprived areas. BMJ open, 13, Art. No.: e069979. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069979

Book Chapter

Social entrepreneurship

de Bruin A, Teasdale S & Roy MJ (2023) Social entrepreneurship. In: Encyclopedia of Social Innovation. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. pp. 346--351.

Project Report

Mapping the Impact of Social Enterprise on Disadvantaged Individuals and Communities in Australia’s Regional Cities

Farmer J, De Cotta T, Kilpatrick S, Barraket J, Brennan-Horley C, McKinnon K, Adler V, Kamstra P, Emery S, Kennedy M, Munoz S & Roy M (2020) Mapping the Impact of Social Enterprise on Disadvantaged Individuals and Communities in Australia’s Regional Cities. Swinburne University of Technology. Melbourne: La Trobe. https://doi.org/10.25916/5ea919c957bac

Article

Re-imagining social enterprise

Kay A, Roy MJ & Donaldson C (2016) Re-imagining social enterprise. Social Enterprise Journal, 12, pp. 217--234.

Book Chapter

Social impact bonds: Shifting the boundaries of citizenship

Sinclair S, McHugh N, Huckfield L, Roy M & Donaldson C (2014) Social impact bonds: Shifting the boundaries of citizenship. In: Farnsworth K, Irving Z & Fenger M (eds.) Social Policy Review 26: Analysis and Debate in Social Policy, 2014. Social Policy Review, 26. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 119-136. https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/social-policy-review-26