Social Challenges are Opportunities for Sustainable Development: Tracing Impacts of Social Entrepreneurship Through Innovations and Value Creation

• Authors: Iva Konda , Jasmina Starc , Barbara Rodica
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Today the world faces many social challenges in the economic, social and environmental spheres that needs to be overcome. The public debate has been focused on finding solutions to them and one of these has been addressed as social entrepreneurship. This phenomenon combines the resourcefulness of traditional entrepreneurship with a mission to change society. Observing the positive social impact of entrepreneurs providing basic needs, this paper recognizes their unique role in efficiently contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals. The purpose of this article is to introduce the connection of social innovations and sustainable growth as an important phenomenon in today's real economy. Based on the interviews with the focus group and the cases of good practice, the authors have established the development of social innovation and social entrepreneurship in Slovenia. It is important in numerous fields, especially in employment, social inclusion, demographic changes, health care, education, finance, political structures and social integration. We found that the obstacle in the development of social entrepreneurship is scattered, unrelated or absent support mechanisms that do not offer the right incentives for the creation and the development of social enterprises. Another conclusion is that cooperation with partners from different sectors of the society is an important fundament in their work with social entrepreneurship.

Keywords

EN

social challenges; sustainable development; social entrepreneurship; social innovation; methodology

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Economic Themes
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 211-229

Dates

published

2015-06-01

received

2015-01-12

accepted

2015-06-26

online

2016-04-15

Contributors

author

Iva Konda

• School of Business and Management Novo mesto, Slovenia

author

Jasmina Starc

• Faculty of Business and Management Sciences Novo mesto, Slovenia

author

Barbara Rodica

• School of Business and Management Novo mesto, Slovenia

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/ethemes-2015-0012