SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INNOVATION: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE IN CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISONS

The concept of social entrepreneurship (SE) is relatively new, still weakly defined and, therefore, is frequently interpreted in the wrong way. A current study regards SE as economic and social innovation and provides with both qualitative and quantitative analyses of this phenomenon. The study explores the language of SE, makes the analysis of 49 countries distribution by social entrepreneurial activity (SEA) and assesses social and economic determinants of SEA index. Such a detailed study on the phenomenon of SE has become feasible mainly due to the availability of the first cross-national results from a special section of the annual GEM Adult Population Survey that was introduced in 2009 in order to explore SEA in GEM countries. A central conclusion of the study indicates that SE is revealed in countries distinguished by their economic development and fulfills there different functions.