One of the many frightening things about the COVID-19 pandemic is the way it has exposed the fragility of our society. Virus test shortages, health equipment shortages, even toilet paper shortages – all have served as a reminder that we are not nearly as secure as we like to think. Social enterprises, broadly defined, are a special kind of company that people organize not for personal financial gain but to provide public goods that neither the government nor the conventional private sector seems capable or willing to provide. Tine de Moor is Professor of Social Enterprise and Institutions for Collective Action at Rotterdam School of ManagementOpens external, Erasmus University: “Institutions for collective action tend to grow more popular in times like ours, when groups of people start to feel that their society’s institutions aren’t looking after their personal interests…”