Conceptual Differentiations on ‘Social Entrepreneurship’. Examples from Romania

Abstract

The initiatives of social entrepreneurship are rather scant in Romania, social businesses scoring a significant increase during the last ten to six years, with such enterprises as Ashoka Romania, Meșteshukar ButiQ, Atelierul Merci, MamaPan, Concordia Bakery, etc., being especially active in this field. Nonetheless, this particular environment remains problematic, in the absence of public policies encouraging this new type of business and the general redistribution of profit. This paper is concerned with the definition and conceptualization of the notion of “social entrepreneurship”, providing a theoretical and taxonomical framework for the discussion of social business in Romania. Furthermore, it dwells on three case studies in Romania, in the attempt to properly identify the steps in the process of initiating a social enterprise and the main challenges this type of endeavor is currently facing in the Romanian context, during the last six years, in a – what would seem – increasingly welcoming entrepreneurial environment.

Keywords

• social enterprise
• legal environment
• marginalized groups
• profit