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The relationship between social entrepreneurship and sustainable development from economic growth perspective: 15 ‘RCEP’ countries

Social entrepreneurship plays a role in sustainable development to value creation, delivering and capturing, in this article, researchers attempted to find the nature of the relationships between the sustainable development and its latent variables, and how can these variables effect on sustainable development. Two models were used to estimate the relationships mentioned before, structural equation model and bidirectional causality model, in the case of 15 the regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) countries that are home to nearly a third of the world’s population, and account for 29% of GDP. The study found some interesting results which consistence with the results of previous studies in this field, like that there has a positive relationship between the social entrepreneurship and sustainable development, and positive relationship between the innovations and sustainable development and in the regard of the institutions variable, the study also found that there is an indirect effect on innovation.

Full scientific article is available HERE. 

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Social enterprises combine societal goals with an entrepreneurial spirit. These organisations focus on achieving wider social, environmental or community objectives. The European Commission aims to create a favourable financial, administrative and legal environment for these enterprises so that they can operate on an equal footing with other types of enterprises in the same sector. The Social Business Initiative, launched in 2011 identified actions to make a real difference and improve the situation on the ground for social enterprises.

What are social enterprises?

A social enterprise is an operator in the social economy whose main objective is to have a social impact rather than make a profit for their owners or shareholders. It operates by providing goods and services for the market in an entrepreneurial and innovative fashion and uses its profits primarily to achieve social objectives. It is managed in an open and responsible manner and, in particular, involves employees, consumers and stakeholders affected by its commercial activities.

The Commission uses the term ‘social enterprise’ to cover the following types of business

  • Those for who the social or societal objective of the common good is the reason for the commercial activity, often in the form of a high level of social innovation
  • Those whose profits are mainly reinvested to achieve this social objective
  • Those where the method of organisation or the ownership system reflects the enterprise’s mission, using democratic or participatory principles or focusing on social justice

There is no single legal form for social enterprises. Many social enterprises operate in the form of social cooperativesSearch for available translations of the preceding linkEN•••, some are registered as private companies limited by guarantee, some are mutual, and a lot of them are non-profit-distributing organisations like provident societies, associations, voluntary organisations, charities or foundations.

Despite their diversity, social enterprises mainly operate in the following 4 fields

  • Work integration – training and integration of people with disabilities and unemployed people
  • Personal social services – health, well-being and medical care, professional training, education, health services, childcare services, services for elderly people, or aid for disadvantaged people
  • Local development of disadvantaged areas – social enterprises in remote rural areas, neighbourhood development/rehabilitation schemes in urban areas, development aid and development cooperation with third countries
  • Other – including recycling, environmental protection, sports, arts, culture or historical preservation, science, research and innovation, consumer protection and amateur sports.

The social business initiative

The social business initiative (SBI), launched in 2011, aims to introduce a short-term action plan to support the development of social enterprises, key stakeholders in the social economy and social innovation. It also aims to prompt a debate on the avenues to be explored in the medium/long term. There are 11 priority measures, organised around 3 themes:

Initiated by the SBI, the Commission and the expert group on social entrepreneurship, established a 5 pillar strategy aimed at increased access to funding, access to markets, improved framework conditions, foster social innovation and continue to work on internationalisation. See more on the implementation of the 5 pillar strategy.

More information is available HERE.

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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BOOK
Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Fundamentals, Concepts, and Tools

Social entrepreneurship and social innovation both seek to improve the world through social change. Whereas social entrepreneurship revolves around the business side of change, social innovation focuses on the processes through which that change is generated. This textbook provides a comprehensive analysis of both topics, covering all the characteristics and elements of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, from a conceptual and practical perspective.

The book includes detailed chapters on:

  • Social Innovation: Origins, Defnitions, and Main Elements
  • Characteristics, Types, and Processes for the Construction of Social Innovations
  • Generation of Values by Social Innovations
  • Basics, Characteristics, and Differences of Social Entrepreneurship
  • Similarities and Differences Among Schools of Social Entrepreneurship
  • Characteristics of the Social Entrepreneur
  • Business Models of Social Enterprises
  • From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Social Innovation
  • Social Innovation from Companies: Social Purpose Business Models
  • Social Intrapreneurship, the Main Factor of Social Innovations Within Traditional Companies
  • Social Impact in Social Innovations: Defnition, Design, and Evaluation
  • Impact Investment, a Key Element in the Promotion of Social Innovation
  • Alignment of Social Innovation with Sustainable Development Goals

The read the whole book click HERE or download below.

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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BOOK
Social Innovation: Comparative perspectives

Social innovation is a topic that is more and more being discussed on both national and European levels (hence, the announcement of this being a strategic priority EU wide). To better be able to provide social impact in the society and find novel solutions also for operating social enterprises, it is necessary to explore how social innovation comes into life and what aspects are necessary to foster it. 

This open access book is a valuable source for understanding in particular the organizations’ capacity to generate novel ideas, ways and means of doing things, and of addressing public and social problems of many kinds.

This volume’s primary assertion is that the third sector, specifically through stimulating civic involvement, is best placed to produce social innovation, outperforming business firms and state agencies in this regard. By investigating actor contributions to social innovation across seven fields of activity, Social Innovation: Comparative Perspectives develops our understanding of why and how the third sector is central to functioning, cohesive and viable societies.

THE CONTENT OF THE BOOK

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Impact of the Third Sector as Social Innovation The third sector or non-profit sector has increasingly gained, in recent years, policy recognition and attracted academic attention. Researchers have analyzed non-profit organizations from different perspectives, usually emphasizing specific roles this set of institutions is assumed to perform.

The read the whole book click HERE or download below.

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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GUIDEBOOK
Social business roadmap

The Social Business Roadmap has the aim to support young people in creating a social enterprise in 10 simple steps. It is an entrepreneurial guide tool for helping young people to make their first step in the social business world, as it’s easy to get lost on the entrepreneurial route, thus this small guide could be used as a road map.

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This guide provides some information about the social business world, the opportunities and the next steps. The Social Business Roadmap, as a non-formal educational tool, contains the necessary information, helpful instructions, and available support that will support a particular action or process regarding self-employability in social entrepreneurship. Therefore, this tool will be the appropriate instrument for any young person who wants to acquire the necessary support and empowerment for planning, launching, managing, and growing a successful social enterprise.

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ONLINE COURSES
HP Life online skills-training program

HP LIFE is a free, skills-training program for entrepreneurs, business owners, and lifelong learners all over the world. These free online training courses are designed to help entrepreneurs learn what they need to know to establish and grow a business. Besides a variety of extremely useful topics, one of the courses is specifically dedicated to social entrepreneurship.

HP LIFE is a global training program available both online and offline via Learning Equality’s Kolibri platform. It gives people all over the world the opportunity to build skills for the future— whether they want to start or grow their own business, enter the workforce or secure a better job—by providing access to free, accessible IT and business skills training courses. It is also an adaptable educational resource used on the ground by trainers, educators, and mentors to enrich curricula, support business creation, and improve employability skills. This is a program of the HP Foundation.

Empowering Everyone, Everywhere to Learn the Skills They Need for a Successful Future

ABOUT THE COURSES
HP collaborates with partners and experts around the world to create highly relevant, business-focused courses that are free to use for everyone, everywhere. The 32+ self-paced courses are modular, interactive, and full of information and practical exercises that enable you to develop the skills you need for a successful future, at a time and place that suits you. Courses are available in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Besides many other, some of the course titles include: Social Entrepreneurship, Social Media Marketing, Design Thinking, Selling Online, etc.

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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IMPACT MANAGEMENT TOOLBOX
For the organisations working with the youth

This toolbox helps organizations and organizers to plan, implement and communicate the positive changes that they aim to create with their initiative or organisation in the lives of young people. It has been designed to help to  do, measure, improve their activities… and repeat! In other words – to be able to create a more positive impact. Besides providing more clarity and increasing efficiency, it will help to involve the core project/activity team and explain the work outside the organisation, too. In conclusion, the toolbox help in creating a lasting legacy.

ABOUT THE TOOLBOX

What? A combination of nine tools especially developed for planning, measuring and increasing positive impacts of the organisations and reducing any negative effects of their activities.
For whom? For you. If you are active in an organisation that works with and for the young people. For example, youth associations aiming to develop their members or social enterprises providing services to youngsters.
What if I don’t work with young people? The tools will be absolutely suitable for designing and measuring the impact of your activities too! However, all the examples in this toolbox are related to young people as they are the main target
group here.

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With the help of this toolbox, you can be even more successful in your activities! If you are reading this, you are probably active in an organisation that aims to create a positive impact in the lives of young people. Perhaps you want to unleash the creative potential of youngsters… or help young people who have had lesser opportunities compared with their peers…. or provide valuable knowledge and skills to the members of a youth organisation.

The document includes following methods: problem tree / goal tree / stakeholder map / beneficiary journey map / theory of change / impact indicators list / research methods list / measurement plan / organisational model canvas

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The toolbox has been developed by the top organisations developing social impact measurement, youth field
and social entrepreneurship in the Baltic States. For more information about the project, click here.

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

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GUIDELINES
Social impact communication in youth organisations and youth social enterprises

Within the project BALTIC: YOUTH: IMPACT, the Latvian Social Entrepreneurship Association together with the Baltic partners has developed Social Impact Communication Guidelines. The goal of social impact communication is to increase and scale the positive social and environmental impact. These guidelines aim to create support instruments to help employees or volunteers in youth organisations or social enterprises to communicate their social impact in an understandable, inexpensive way, thus supporting efforts towards quality and better work of youth organisations. The guidelines will help to understand, how to organise internal and external communication and how to choose the communication message.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF COMMUNICATING YOUR SOCIAL IMPACT?
Sometimes you may wonder whether the time dedicated to communicating your impact is worthwhile or maybe you have a
question, to whom you should communicate your impact. Or why do you need to invest resources to build this communication? The answer is – because the impact communication benefits an organisation in many ways.

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These guidelines will serve you as an inspiration on how to communicate the social impact of your organisation or project to both internal and external audiences. If you still have doubts after reading the guidelines or you think your organisation is too small and does not have enough resources to create your social impact communication strategy, do not be afraid to start small.

It’s a good idea to start with simple steps like preparing and compiling data. By taking small steps you can gradually grow bigger and achieve great things – the more you talk about your organisation, the greater the chances of receiving more support and expanding the team in the future. The key is not to be afraid and start doing it. And you can start by checking out the guidelines below!

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EaSI Technical Assistance for social enterprise finance

Social enterprises contribute to the European policy in the area of employment and social inclusion and are particularly relevant for the implementation of the rights and principles expressed in the European Pillar for Social Rights.

The European Commission recognised the potential of social enterprises for innovation and their positive impact on the economy and society at large in its Social Business Initiative and Start-up and Scale-up Initiative. Within this context, lack of or poor access to finance was identified as one of the most significant barriers to the creation and development of social enterprises.

To this end, several financial instruments have been launched within the EaSI programme and the European Fund for Strategic Investments. In addition, EaSI technical assistance – which previously addressed only microcredit providers – has been extended to cover also targeted support to social enterprise finance intermediaries.

A consortium of service providers performs these technical assistance support services, on behalf of the European Commission. The lead partner of the consortium is the European Center for Social Finance at the Munich Business School. Services will be provided in collaboration with a network of around 25 established experts from the field.

Therefore, if you are funding or planning to fund social enterprises, you might be eligible for valuable technical assistance services.

What is in it for you?

Social enterprise finance intermediaries wishing to improve relevant aspects of their operations, performance and governance can apply for technical assistance with a view to boosting their institutional capacity. The aim is to select organisations that are in most need of support from EaSI Technical Assistance, ensuring a balanced geographical representation.

The social enterprise finance intermediaries targeted by the technical assistance services comprise:

  • social enterprise finance providers (such as banks, public and private investment funds, fund-of-funds or (co-) investment schemes)
  • impact investors keen to address in the future the market segment of the EaSI Guarantee for social enterprises (i.e. investments of up to €500,000)
  • social enterprise support organisations (such as incubators, accelerators) that offer accompanying financial support
  • social enterprise support organisations (such as incubators, accelerators) that are in the process of widening their scope with a view to providing accompanying financial support to social enterprises.

These technical assistance services focus on capacity building and cover analysis, training in designing suitable financial instruments, applying suitable tools and ensuring quality, mutual learning and exchange of good practice, networking and partnering, monitoring and evaluation.

What services are on offer?

More detailed information is available HERE.

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.