MAIN APPROACHES TO THE CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIAL ENTERPRISES

Abstract

Introduction. Social entrepreneurship is a relatively new phenomenon for world science. Scientists approach the systematization of knowledge in this field and the very definition of this term in different ways. And this, in turn, led to the existence of different approaches to the classification of social enterprises. A number of factors are due to the variety of classification features: a large number of social problems, the solution of which requires new methods of doing business; regulatory framework governing the activities of social enterprises; not a clear distinction between social entrepreneurship and charity, corporate social responsibility. A detailed classification of social enterprises will help identify enterprises that will best fit the essence of the model of social entrepreneurship. Methods. The theoretical and methodological basis for the study of the main directions of classification of social enterprises used in the world, were the works of domestic and foreign scientists on the features of the model of socially-oriented entrepreneurship. The article used general and special methods of scientific knowledge: system analysis and synthesis, deductive and inductive methods, methods of analogies, generalizations and comparisons. Results. The article examines different approaches to the classification of social entrepreneurship, which are based on the following criteria: the degree of integration of the social program and business processes; goals of activity and direction of profit use; mission, the availability of income from core activities and the availability of an innovative component; ways to create social enterprises; specifics of business organization. All social enterprises can be divided into those that provide social services to the population, and those who employ socially vulnerable groups of the population. Also, enterprises are divided into self-financing, partly self-financing and profitable, depending on the level of profitability of business entities and the size of the social effect created. Special attention is paid to the classification of social enterprises, which is used in the Catalog of social enterprises of Ukraine. The scientific novelty of the obtained results lies in the theoretical substantiation and practical solution of the expediency of classification of socially-oriented enterprises in two directions: social and commercial. Discussion. Further research will focus on determining the level of compliance of the enterprise with its socially-oriented mission on the basis of the proposed classification. Keywords: the classification of social enterprises, social-oriented entrepreneurship, social effect.