Social Enterprise in Central and Eastern Europe

In the last two decades, the quest for a widely accepted definition of social enterprise has been a central issue in a great number of publications. The main objective of the ICSEM Project (on which this book is based) was to show that the social enterprise field would benefit much more from linking conceptualisation efforts to the huge diversity of social enterprises than from an additional and ambitious attempt at providing an encompassing definition. Starting from a hypothesis that could be termed "the impossibility of a unified definition", the ICSEM research strategy relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the social enterprise phenomenon in its local and national contexts. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major social enterprise models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. Social Enterprise in Central and Eastern Europe - the last volume in a series of four ICSEM-based books on social enterprise worldwide - will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and others who want to acquire a broad understanding of the social enterprise and social entrepreneurship phenomena as they emerge and develop in this region.

Jacques Defourny is Professor Emeritus at the Centre for Social Economy, HEC Management School, University of Liege, Belgium. He was a founder and the first President of the EMES International Research Network. Marthe Nyssens is President of the EMES International Research Network and Professor and Pro-Rector "Society and Transition", UCLouvain, Belgium.

Part I: National Overviews of Social Enterprise. 1. Social Enterprises in Bulgaria: Historical and Institutional Perspective Tsvetelina Marinova and Elisabeth Yoneva. 2. Social Enterprise in Croatia: Charting New Territories Davorka Vidovic and Danijel Baturina. 3. Social Enterprise in the Czech Republic: Heritage and New Developments Marie Dohnalová, Durmish Guri, Jaroslava Hrabetová, Katerina Legnerová and Venceslava slechtová. 4. The Social Enterprise Phenomenon in the Georgian Context Maya Giorbelidze. 5. Social Enterprise in Hungary: Concepts, Models and Institutions Éva G. Fekete, László Hubai, Julianna Kiss and Melinda Mihály. 6. Challenges for Social Enterprises in Latvia Henrijs Kalkis, Lolita Vilka, Lasma Licite-Kurbe, Ilze Trapenciere and Marta Urbane. 7. Social Enterprises in Lithuania: Historical Roots and Current Trends Audrone Urmanaviciene, Egle Butkeviciene, Philipp Erpf and Agota Giedre RaiSiene. 8. Social Enterprise in Poland: Institutional and Historical Context Anna Ciepielewska-Kowalik and Marzena Starnawska, in collaboration with Aleksandra Szymanska and Bartosz Pielinski. 9. Institutionalisation of Social Enterprise in Romania: Historical Milestones and SE Models Development Mihaela Lambru and Claudia Petrescu. 10. Social Enterprise in Russia: Developing Social Entrepreneurship Models in the Russian Legal and Socio-economic Context Yury Blagov and Yulia Aray. 11. The Landscape of Social Enterprise in the Slovak Republic Zuzana Polacková. Part II: Comparative Analyses and Perspectives. 12. The Influence of Historical and Institutional Legacies on Present-day Social Enterprises in CEE Countries: Lessons from Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Croatia Anna Ciepielewska-Kowalik, Davorka Vidovic, Julianna Kiss, László Hubai, Katerina Legnerová and Marie Dohnalová. 13. The Role of External Financing in the Development of Social Entrepreneurship in CEE Countries Danijel Baturina, Melinda Mihály, Erila Haska, Anna Ciepielewska-Kowalik, Julianna Kiss, Ariola Agolli, Marija Bashevska, Jana Korunovska Srbijanko, Dina Rakin and Vladimir Radojicic. 14. Endogenous vs. Exogenous Drivers in the Development of a Social Enterprise Sector Slobodan Cvejic, Konstantina Zoehrer and Vardan Urutyan. 15. Social Enterprises in the Rural Areas: A Comparative Study of the Baltic States Roger Evans, Mervi Raudsaar, Lasma Licite-Kurbe, Egle Butkeviciene, Philipp Erpf, Audrone Urmanaviciene, and Agota Giedre RaiSiene. 16. Testing the Relevance of Major Social Enterprise Models in Central and Eastern Europe Jacques Defourny, Marthe Nyssens and Olivier Brolis