本研究的課題聚焦於1990年以來，二十年來有關台灣社會企業的發展，這二十年間台灣社會在政治、經濟與社會需求等面向上都是變遷快速的年代，本文包含四個部分，除前言之外，第二部分針對台灣社會企業的發展過程進行概要性的論述，以釐清在台灣社會脈絡之下，有關社會企業的界定，以及有關非營利組織的發展關係，同時建構出五項影響台灣社會企業興起之原因類型的論述。第三部分為台灣社會企業的分類型態，根據其樣態、功能以及實際組織之例，建構出五種主要的類型。第四部分則根據研究者在2010年執行「台灣社會企業在就業與抗貧的角色分析」之研究計畫，描述台灣社會企業的發展趨勢與成效。最後部分則是總結本研究前面之研究發現，並提供相關之建議。

The discourse, "Social Enterprises in Taiwan: Characteristics, Development Trend and Effect," zooms in on a period of about two decades, i.e. from the 1990s till now. This is a time when Taiwan society went through most rapid changes in the aspects of politics, economy and social needs. This paper is consisted of four parts. After introduction, Section 2 gives an overview of the developmental course of social enterprises in Taiwan, exploring what social enterprises refer to and how they are defined in the Taiwan context and the developmental course of Taiwan's NPO sector over the past twenty years, and elaborating on the five major factors that have contributed to the rise of social enterprises in Taiwan. Section 3 contains a typology of Taiwan's social enterprises and elaborates on the five major types according to their features, functions, citing real organizations as examples. In section 4, the authors describe the development trend and effect for Taiwan's social enterprises based on the 2010 survey data of the authors' one-year research project, entitled "Analyzing the Roles of Social Enterprises in Taiwan in Employment and Poverty Reduction." Finally, research findings of this study are summarized as conclusion and suggestions on four aspects.