The internationalisation of FairShares model : where agency meets structure in US and UK company law

This chapter is a reflexive analysis of factors that are affecting the internationalisation of the FairShares Model (FSM) in the US and UK. The goal of the paper, however, is to explore how Giddens’ (1984) structuration theory offers insights into the formation of social enterprises that offer alternative approaches to incorporation. Between September 2015 and January 2016, three social entrepreneurs used the FSM to constitute two new companies in the UK and US. A study of FSM early adopters provides an opportunity to explore how agents (social entrepreneurs) rewrite structures (Articles of Association) when they form a new social enterprise. By examining how the Articles of Dojo4Life Ltd (UK) and AnyShare Society (US) changed during debates about incorporation, the dialectal relationship between social entrepreneurial agency and institutional structures can be effectively theorised.