Hong Kong’s few successful home-grown social enterprises have earned quite a bit of press in recent years, but judging from their leaders’ remarks at last Saturday’s TEDxPedition conference, they are still struggling to gain broad acceptance.

The conference, held at the Hong Kong Jockey Club and organized by Suchen Global, covered quite a bit of ground: speakers represented a venture capital fund financing environmental efficiency projects in Mainland factories, and a social enterprise marketing luxury yak wool products, among others.  Curiously, local speakers were the only ones who devoted any time to rebutting hypothetical detractors: why provide work for rehabilitated youth offenders?  Or for senior citizens watching their savings dwindle?  By contrast, other speakers took for granted the premise that social enterprise is worthwhile and plunged straight into a discussion of the obstacles they faced.  In other words, Hong Kong’s social entrepreneurs presumed opposition where their overseas counterparts presumed acceptance.

What does this say about support for local enterprises, which are only now getting off the ground?  Social enterprise might look like a workable compromise between effecting social change and mollifying Hong Kong’s traditional mercantile interests – but, as Saturday’s speakers demonstrated, the more-than-profit approach takes even more creativity than just keeping commerce and charity separate.  It remains to be seen whether the mindset takes root: for the most part, Hong Kong’s pursuit of the bottom line will brook no compromise.