Interplay of theory and practice: experiences from the Hungarian social enteprise field

Abstract

The concepts of social enterprise and social entrepreneur have been subject to growing interest in Hungary, but the field still lacks clear understanding and regulation. Still, in recent years, several key actors have appeared and have shaped the emerging organizational field in certain directions. Based on the theory of reflexive isomorphism, the present paper analyzes the approaches of these dominant actors in Hungary and also examines the interpretations of social enterprise practitioners. The research employs literature review to explore the main actors, approaches and narratives present, and the analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted in the spring of 2017 with 20 leaders of social enterprises to account for the experiences from practice. Through these methods, the influence of the dominant actors and discourses on the everyday operation and views of social entrepreneurs is discussed, which contributes to the understanding of the development of the social enterprise organizational field in Hungary.

Keywords

• social enterprise
• social entrepreneur
• reflexive isomorphism
• organizational field