Performance Evaluation of Sheltered Workshops. Does Legal Status Matter?

Social enterprise pursues both social and economic goals and is recognized as a formula for achieving sustainable development. Sheltered workshops (SWs) are a manifestation of this phenomenon, their main objective being the labor market integration of disabled people. In this paper, the efficiency of SWs has been studied taking into account the operational and the core social aspects, as well as their distinct nature, namely for-profit or non-profit status. Additionally, we have analyzed the relationship between the social efficiency and the economic returns of these entities. To do this, a semiparametric methodology, combining different data envelopment analysis (DEA) models with truncated regression estimation has been used. It is the non-profit and top-performing SWs that achieve the best social and economic efficiency. For-profit and low-performing SWs show further reductions in social efficiency as a result of the economic crisis and uncertainty in subsidy-related public policies. Their extensive social proactiveness and high economic strength in the crisis period positively influenced their social and economic efficiency. We have also proven that it is the most profitable SWs that have the greatest social efficiency. We consider that our results constitute a useful complement to other evaluation models for social enterprise.