Social Enterprises in Serbia: Analysis of Key Development Factors, Major Actors and their Relationships

Abstract

Management 2016/81In this paper we present evidence from the empirical research which focuses on social entrepreneurship (SE) in Serbia. We analysed the key factors that influence the development of social enterprises, the major actors in the sector and the relationships established among them. Our data show that owners are the dominant stakeholder group influencing SE business and that they are followed by the customers. The influence of the market vs the influence of the regulations changes with the change in size of the enterprise. The importance of the state also changes with the change in size. Though social enterprises operate in the network characterised by the trust among the actors, high quality cooperation and embeddedness into a network of closely tied business relations, the level of influence that sector itself has is perceived very low.

Social Innovation to Sustain Rural Communities: Overcoming Institutional Challenges in Serbia

“…Social innovation organisations have to navigate between existing regulations and/or tailor their business models to fit existing rules while accepting adverse effects for their businesses. The introduction of a "social cooperative" category within the Law on Cooperatives (2015) is seen as an institutional measure that partly fills this gap [59,67] and was certainly supportive for the CS7 business model, for example. According to this law, social cooperatives undertake various activities to promote the social, economic, or other related needs of vulnerable social groups.…”

“…Some researchers argue that the social entrepreneurship sector in Serbia has entered its institutionalisation stage with the introduction of social cooperatives as a category with the law on cooperatives and the recognition of social enterprises as service providers in social care [64][65][66][67]. Since 2012, there have been several attempts to also pass the Law on Social Entrepreneurship by the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans' and Social Affairs, but the various drafts have thus far not met the expectations of stakeholders.…”