BANGKOK -- It was an unusual business conference. No one talked of maximizing profits, and there were no dark-suited men among the delegates. Instead the women who gathered in Bangkok for a three-day Asian Women Social Entrepreneurs Network Conference in late November are part of a growing business sector in Southeast Asia -- one which offers an alternative vision to conventional notions of a successful business.

Chitpong Kittinaradorn of Change Fusion, an international business consultancy, said there is no globally agreed legal definition of a social enterprise, but the basic principle is that it "combines positive social or environmental impact with financial sustainability."

Unlike charities or traditional nonprofit organizations, social enterprises are usually designed to make profits that can then be reinvested to promote social causes.

Tang Duyen Hong, founder and CEO of social enterprise Coin for Change Vietnam, addresses delegates on Nov. 24. © AWSEN 2016

The sector offers potential investors the opportunity to be involved in "impact funding," or investments that offer returns while also generating measurable social or environmental benefits.

One Vietnamese delegate, Tang Duyen Hong, operates projects that provide employment for struggling single mothers. "Most of the people we work with are teenagers who had unplanned pregnancies or have been victims of domestic violence. We run a safe house and train them in cooking and sewing," she said, sporting a scarlet dress made by a trainee in the program.

Many of the projects generate income to provide further social support and services. For example, she noted: "Some of the single mothers also help facilitate a program we run in which volunteers give low-cost English lessons to children in buildings where there are lots of families living so the children can attend classes cheaply and safely."

Leang Chanthy, a manager at the Cambodian Agricultural Value Chain Program, holds up a prototype of a sound-based rat trapping device as she addresses delegates on Nov. 24. © AWSEN 2016

Other delegates at the Bangkok gathering exhibited distinctly less glamorous but potentially life-changing products. Leang Chanthy, from the Cambodian Agricultural Value Chain Program, showed off her audio-based rat-catching device, developed to reduce the rodent population in agricultural communities. Rats are blamed for consuming 5-10% of Asia's annual rice crop -- "an amount which could feed 200 million people," according to the International Rice Research Institute.

Focus on Japan

Sayaka Watanabe, the founder of re:terra, a Tokyo-based social enterprise web portal, said that interest in social enterprises in Japan had grown in response to the series of big natural disasters that had hit the nation.

"Especially after [the Tohoku earthquake of] March 11, 2011, the Japanese government and general citizens looked to cultural and natural resources to revitalize rural communities," she said."[The disaster] changed citizens' hearts and that changed society."

As more social enterprises were established in Japan, coinciding with a wider global awareness of responsible business practices, investors became increasingly willing to support them. This emerging interest has led not only to a shift in social attitudes, but also to changes in government policies, she noted. For example, an elderly care initiative that began as a social enterprise has helped shape government policy in supporting older people.

Sayaka Watanabe, the founder of re:terra, a Tokyo web portal, says interest in social enterprises in Japan had grown in response to big natural disasters. © AWSEN 2016

The result is that both social enterprise leaders and the Japanese government are keen to pass on lessons learned to other countries, she noted.

One big hope for social enterprises, according to Watanabe, is that they can help protect cultural traditions and skills that are under threat in developing countries because of rapid economic changes.

Japanese investors in social enterprises are particularly interested in the health and agriculture industries in Southeast Asia due to increased demand for these sectors amid population growth in some parts of the region, Watanabe added.

Expanding Asian activity

The size and types of social enterprises vary dramatically across Southeast Asia.

Change Fusion estimates there are more than 10,000 social enterprises in Thailand, where the royal family supports many such organizations, including popular farming initiatives whose products are sold nationwide.

There are around 500 social enterprises in Indonesia, half of them based in Jakarta, while the Philippines has around 30,000 thanks to a well-established microfinance sector, said Change Fusion's Chitpong.

In Cambodia there are 80 such initiatives and 200 in Vietnam, although the latter has some 35,000 other organizations that could potentially become recognized social enterprises.

Vietnam is the region's only country to grant legal status to social enterprises, added Chitpong, noting that the law requiring that social enterprises must reinvest 51% of their profits in operations.

Myanmar, by contrast, has yet to recognize the handful of social enterprises operating in the country, which are still required to pay corporate taxes.

One distinct difference between social enterprises and conventional businesses is that the owners are frequently happy to keep their organizations relatively small to ensure they can continue to have a positive social impact, said Chitpong. That approach can sometimes be difficult to persuade traditional investors to accept and it is leading to a new trend, which Chitpong calls "partial social enterprises."

"These are not fully self-sustaining but have a clear social impact and [operate] by a combination of revenue generation and grants or match-funding," he said. "This is because not everyone wants to grow their business exponentially. They want to serve their communities." In Thailand, for example, more than half of all social enterprises employ fewer than 20 people, he added.

Money matters

The biggest challenge for most social enterprises is inadequate support and funding, particularly in the early stages. But a growing number of organizations are being established to offer support and connect social entrepreneurs with potential funders.

Brenda Floors, business manager of Myanmar social enterprise Hla Day, left, displays some of the jewelry and crafts sold through the organization, at the Asian Women Social Network Conference in Bangkok on Nov. 24. © AWSEN 2016

Among those are Impact Connect Asia, a social investment portal, whose website lists more than 300 social enterprises, with 57 of them now receiving funding. Another group promoting social enterprises is Kiva, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization which crowd sources funds to provides loans to social enterprises. When the loan is repaid, lenders can either lend again to a new project, donate the funds or withdraw them. Kiva, which was launched in 2005, reports that it has facilitated loans of $945 million to 2.2 million organizations in 82 countries.

Because of the lack of a legal definition of what constitutes a social enterprise, it is difficult to judge the economic value of the sector to national economies. But according to the latest annual survey of impact investors survey by the Global Impact Investing Network, respondents reported they had made $15.2 billion in impact investments worldwide in 2015.

Even if the individual investment amounts are small, the financial size of the overall sector is anything but. The survey found "emerging markets are a key area of focus," with 15%-19% of investors saying they were planning to increase their allocations in East and Southeast Asia this year.

Francisco Cos Montiel, regional advisor for women's economic empowerment at the United Nations agency, UN Women, told conference delegates that social investment is good for national economies, not just individual projects.

Many social enterprises help boost female workforce participation by providing job opportunities and gender-friendly work environments, he noted, citing findings by McKinsey that if there was labor equality between the sexes, global gross domestic product would rise by 26%.

"By creating jobs, paying fair wages, and engaging with the value chain so that products reach high-end markets," social enterprises can contribute significantly to the wider economy, he told the Nikkei Asian Review.

The skills and innovation of the woman entrepreneurs were evident in the variety of goods and services on display at the forum, including jewelry made from recycled material in Myanmar, a book delivery service from Laos, and a Vietnamese arts organization that supports personal development through performance.

As with small companies everywhere, these enterprises alone will not be enough to set their founders on the road to success. They must overcome the challenges of developing strong business models and accessing start-up and development funding.

But the social entrepreneurs attending the conference had one additional asset, which could well set them apart from more conventional businesses and help boost the future fortunes of their social enterprises.

"In Japan people buy a product not only because it is a good product, but because it has a good story," said Watanabe. By her reasoning, if that is also the case elsewhere, then the stories behind these women entrepreneurs, their products and services -- and the positive impact they have on people's lives - will surely be a powerful selling point.