RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

222 RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Table 1: Data description
Data type Number Length
Project presentations 2 44 pages
Blog texts 3 5 pages
Evaluation report 1 17 pages
Interviews 1 2 hours
Field notes 6 23 pages
Case description 1 5 pages
The analysis was conducted manually. Typical to qualitative research, analysis and data
collection overlapped. The analysis did not base on formal coding procedure but on more
direct interpretation of research materials (Stake, 1995). Analysis started so that case description
was constructed based on chronological process presented in figure 3. After the first case
description was written, the usefulness of the user entrepreneurship –theory was noticed and
lead us to investigate the corresponded phases. After this, two hour open interview with the
process leader and participated researchers was conducted in order to validate results.
The first author of this paper participated in the data collection and made the analysis. In
order to avoid researcher bias, there were constant interaction between other participated three
researchers so that meaning-making, interpretations and subjectivity (Mabry, 2008 p. 222)
could be handled.
Findings
Case description
Foundation A is a non-profit organization operating in Southern Finland. It produces services
such as housing and rehabilitation services to mental health and substance abuse rehabilitees.
A newly recruited employee of Foundation A decided to start a process that would
lead to the establishment of a social enterprise. The reason for doing so was the fact that work
is considered an important aspect of rehabilitation and a step towards “normal life”. However,
the general working life in Finland is considered rather rigid and on-off: either you are
capable of working fulltime or not at all. There are no suitable working conditions or opportunities
for rehabilitees who are able and willing to work but in terms of their current capabilities.
The following quote from the projects blog illustrates well the problem that was to
be tackled:
“Comparing the objectives of “Bee of social economy” and yesterday’s TV-programme titled “Who
would hire a person, who is partly fit to work?, can be said that our venture is so right and justified!
Or what do you say, pre-board members, about the next quotes from the programme: “Finnish labor
market suffers from on/off- problem”, “I think it is a shame, if a person can´t utilize all his cards in
his hand”. The interview of Finnish labor minister Lauri Ihalainen is also very interesting and encouraging.
Or what do you say about his comment that employing by social cause has bigger influence
of national economy than raising a retirement age.” (Source: Blog text, freely translated from Finnish)
The primary focus of social enterprise was to fit capabilities of its employees and secondary
focus is to be financially viable, preferably without any financial support from gov-