A profile of social enterprise in Brazil based on theoretical differences from and similarities with US, European, and emerging country perspectives

Abstract

The topic of social enterprise (SE) has gained much attention in academic and business discussions, but knowledge concerning SE is still incipient in Brazil. Our objective is to identify the profile of and to verify which of the three SE perspectives Brazilian SE resembles. In total, 730 social organisations were identified in Brazil through the available public data, from which 84 SEs were randomly selected for descriptive statistics collection and analysis using the binomial hypotheses test. The profile adopted in Brazil is unique, with few similarities with the US perspective. The Brazilian SEs has diversified operations, is legally known as companies and has up to ten employees on average. Our work provides a profile of Brazilian SEs, filling a gap in the literature. It promotes a reflection on the capacity of the emerging country perspective to reflect the reality of the SEs located in developing countries.