An explicit model of what a public business legally is does not yet exist. That work lies ahead of us. The old industrial model embeds for-profit and nonprofit activities in current law as the only choices. The digital age calls for new cyberlaw that introduces something that intersects nonprofit and for-profit incentives as a third option. The bottom-line profit model of traditional business doesn't fit because it cannot accommodate the public interest as a core mission.
All organizations are in transition, pushing beyond traditional boundaries.
It reported on the trend by associations to change their status to nonprofit but taxable. Meanwhile, socially-responsible businesses fashion alliances of nonprofit and corporate partners to create new public ventures, such as American Express support for Share Our Strength, and the recent Starbucks Coffee, et al. So he founded Independent Sector to coalesce and accelerate this voluntary sector. It has spawned an industry that specializes in the IRS-speak of unrelated business income tax or UBITs. But the nonprofit but taxable cobbling fails to fully unleash the possibilities of a public business model.