Social enterprise has become an important component of governmental social and economic policy in both the UK and South Korea over the last decade. Both countries have experienced a growth in social businesses, with the UK recently adopting targets for the number of social enterprises established. Whilst the emphasis in the UK has been on their role in developing mixed economies of care and building entrepreneurial skills in deprived communities, the South Korean model has been more closely allied to US ‘welfare to work’ strategies. The paper explores these differences and critically examines the capacity of social enterprises to meet wider social and economic objectives.