Determinants of Development of Social Enterprises according to the Theory of Sustainable Development

Abstract

Social enterprises today are a worldwide phenomenon that has had a major impact on local communities and societies. Apart from pursuing their mission within the market, social enterprises are closely linked through scientific theories with the concept of sustainable development. In practice, they are linked with pursuing so-called sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. It is a universal call to action to end poverty. One of the ways of fighting against poverty is providing people excluded from the labor market with decent jobs. It is one of the main aims of many social enterprises. The aim of this paper is to identify internal and external conditions influencing the functioning and development of social enterprises operating in the Warmia and Mazury region, which is underdeveloped according to the EU taxonomy. This paper used survey research conducted among social enterprises in the region of Warmia and Mazury. In the context of sustainable development as a concept, this paper identifies the scale of influence of the analyzed social enterprises on restoring people who are professionally excluded into the labor market. This paper indicates that not only financial and legal issues limit the development of social enterprises, but also elements such as the insufficient number of people willing to do social work or the level of creativity of the employed staff. It has been established that among analyzed enterprises, the level of received support is associated with the number of created workplaces, but it is not connected with gained income, nor is the volume of employment within the analyzed social enterprises correlated with gained income.