RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

Social entrepreneur: Does literature match reality?
Helena SILVA 1 , Hilma CARAVAU 2 ,
Marlene AMORIM 3 , Marta Ferreira DIAS 4
1,2,3,4
University of Aveiro, Portugal
1
helenavasconcelos@ua.pt
Abstract: Social enterprises have emerged as a way to address answers to social, cultural, economic
and environmental needs to which governments cannot make a timely and effective response. The social
economy is considered a fundamental pillar for societies to achieve progress. In recent years, the increasing
number of established social enterprises has been accompanied by a growth in the number of publications
on this topic. Several definitions for the term “social entrepreneur” can be found, nevertheless it is considered
important to ensure that what the literature says is consistent with what the players feel and think.
This study aims to explore and to analyse the vision of stakeholders from the social economy and check
points of agreement and divergence between theory and practice. The study addresses a sample of 46 respondents
from five European countries – Cyprus, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Romania, which joined the Erasmus+
Project Social Entrepreneurship Support Europe.
Regarding the definition of “social entrepreneur”, results show that interviewees’ opinions are consistent
with literature. A match was found between personal and transversal characteristics referred by practitioners
and literature, although a gap was found regarding social attributes, since respondents put a bigger
emphasis on such features.
Keywords: Europe, social entrepreneur, social economy, stakeholders.
Introduction
Supporting social, cultural, economic and environmental causes with the intent to create social
value has always been a concern of people, both individually and collectively. Recent literature
addresses the increasing importance of social economy initiatives, regarding its role as a
means for solving societal problems that demand urgent and innovative solutions (Rey-Martí,
Ribeiro-Soriano & Sánchez-García, 2015). To this end an increasing number of social enterprises
is emerging as one of the ways to answer these questions (Bikse, Rivza & Riemere, 2015).
International entities, such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) and the European Commission had raised attention on the need to face the problems
resulting from a world in constant change (Buckingham & Teasdale, 2013; European
Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, 2013).