Social Entrepreneurship in Bulgaria and Europe

Venelin Terziev,Ekaterina Arabska

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3142940

Abstract

In the last decade the concept of development and promotion of social economy and social entrepreneurship are part of the EU policy to tackle the social exclusion of persons in a vulnerable position. Also, the model of social economy is one of the key instruments for achieving social objectives within the framework of the sustainable and inclusive growth. Social benefits are measured by integration and employment of disadvantaged people, the contribution to the process of social inclusion of other vulnerable people, and the economic indicator is expressed by saved public funds for social welfare, on the one hand, and the additional funds compensating the social costs of long-term unemployment. What is important to happen is to create suitable conditions for the development of social enterprises with the widest possible range - vulnerable groups themselves and their problems are diverse and different, and the answer to their needs must be flexible in order to be efficient and effective; the way to solutions is not important - the paths may be different, as are diverse and vast opportunities for economic initiatives that leads to the result itself, the result is important - better integration and sustainable tackling of social exclusion.

Highlights

A fast growing world population, swelling middle class, scarcity of natural resources and the effects of climate change are considered to be the great challenges of our time
Europe is facing enormous challenges: Economic crisis - unemployment and poverty and social exclusion levels have reached record highs. They are a huge drain on Europe's human resources at a time when public budgets are under pressure
Countries in which the concept of the social economy enjoys a moderate level of acceptance: These include Italy, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Sweden, Latvia, Malta, Poland, the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Iceland

Summary

INTRODUCTION

A fast growing world population, swelling middle class, scarcity of natural resources and the effects of climate change are considered to be the great challenges of our time. Contributions come through: Meeting social needs, using business success to address social or environmental challenges such as regeneration and social inclusion; Encouraging ethical markets, raising the bar for corporate responsibility; Improving public services, by shaping service design, pioneering new approaches and delivering services; Improving levels of enterprise, showing that ethical commitment and business success can be combined. Successful social enterprises can play an important role in helping deliver on many of the Government‟s key policy objectives by: Helping to drive up productivity and competitiveness; Contributing to socially inclusive wealth creation; enabling individuals and communities to work towards regenerating their local neighbourhoods; Showing new ways to deliver and reform public services; And helping to develop an inclusive society and active citizenship. It‟s certainly not the only solution, but it is most definitely a solution (Georgiev, 2016; Georgiev, 2017-a; Terziev, Kanev, 2019; Terziev, 2019a-k)

SOCIAL ENTERPRISES IN EUROPE

SOCIAL ENTERPRISES IN BULGARIA

Findings

CONCLUSION