THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF STUDYING THE SOCIAL ROLE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTEPRISES

Abstract

The article considers the main foreign and domestic theoretical approaches to the study of the social role of entrepreneurship. Historical stages of studying the place and role of entrepre-neurship in the process of functioning and development of society are highlight-ed in the paper. Based on the thesaurus modeling, the article presents the conceptual frame-work of the social role of business in modern Russian society. Expert assess-ments coupled with theoretical approach-es are used as tools to conduct the empir-ical study. The relationship between the quality of business community and the business`s social role performance is defined based upon the results of semi-formalized ex-pert interviews with members of the pro-fessional associations, government agen-cies and universities. It is concluded that the business envi-ronment depends not only on the eco-nomic success of entrepreneurs, but also on attitudes of social groups towards en-trepreneurship, including relationships within business community, civil society and government structures. The social role of small and medium-sized businesses is defined as a complex func-tion that deals with complex system of social, political, economic and govern-ment interactions.