The Role of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Economy in Romanian Sustainable Business Development

Abstract

In their scientific endeavour, the authors aim at analysing the concepts of social entrepreneurship and social economy, as well as emphasising the role these concepts play in sustainable business development and in the economic development of society as a whole. At the same time, several aspects of social enterprises are presented and their importance in the Romanian economic environment is emphasised. As these are two relatively new concepts in the social economy in Romania, the authors refer to the specialised literature throughout their research. The authors present several of the opportunities and challenges raised by social economy. The importance of financing is emphasised by means of presenting the organisations' financing sources which are specific to social economy. The conclusions to this research include some of the authors' own viewpoints, with reference to the aspects of social entrepreneurship – social enterprises – social economy and their role in overall economic development.