Social Enterprise in Estonia: Present Situation and the Perspectives of Future Development, Survey of Estonian Opinion

The main purpose of this research is to reveal Estonian opinion and public awareness on the social enterprise phenomenon and to establish whether Estonian respondents are willing to support and participate in social entrepreneurship. The authors conducted a survey among financial/business professionals. Information was compiled and analyzed based on the received responses. The survey discovered that in Estonia people are willing to support social enterprises by purchasing their goods or services or by sharing their knowledge and skills free of charge. The survey has also shown that social enterprise has to be developed in order to solve various state and society problems. Results have also shown that most of the respondents ranked the society and personal awareness of social enterprise in Estonia as low. Authors believe that findings of the survey may be useful for defining strategies of further successful development of social enterprising in Estonia. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.