Il Modello di Impresa Sociale 'Made in Switzerland': Risultati di un’Indagine Eeplorativa Condotta sul Piano Nazionale (The Social Enterprise 'Made in Switzerland': Findings of an Exploratory Analysis at National Level)

Abstract

Thanks to the success of the country’s economic and social model, in Switzerland thinking on and practice of social economy are not so developed as in other countries. However, in the last two decades, we have observed the birth of different forms of social enterprise, initiated mainly by not-for-profit organisations.This paper sets out the principal results of an exploratory analysis of the social enterprise sector in Switzerland, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The study focused on the aim of integrating vulnerable persons into employment.48 organisations participated in the survey, 20 of them based in German-speaking Switzerland, 21 in French-speaking Switzerland and 7 in Italian-speaking Switzerland. We have tried to cast light on the phenomenon at the national level, assessing in particular: the magnitude and genesis of the sector, the factors that have influenced its development, the awareness of social enterprise identity, the peculiarities of the Swiss situation as compared with European practice with regard to some of the EMES criteria (integration schemes, production activity, type of resource mobilisation, forms of governance). Finally, we identified 4 prototypes of social enterprise and set out some thoughts on how the Swiss social enterprise sector might develop.