engleski

The role of social actors in the development of social entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurs, guided by the idea to change the world, contribute to solving various social problems. The contributions that they create in that process can be identified as reducing unemployment, improving social services, education and improving the quality of life. Sensitive to injustice and powerlessness of a certain group of people, social entrepreneurs want to create positive changes. But, this goal cannot be achieved easily because the biggest challenge before social entrepreneurs is to convince all the other actors of society to understand and support their ideas. Social entrepreneurship, as a hybrid model, focuses on crossing sectoral boundaries and strengthening cross-sectoral collaboration, especially in addressing the complex social needs and environmental concerns. Strengthening cross-sectoral collaboration in local communities creates comprehensive integrated approaches to development and social policies, but also allows the revitalisation of social capital. This paper focuses on eastern Croatia, one of the country’s least developed regions, where social entrepreneurship has shown potential for dealing with local issues. The paper is based on the assumption that the lack of networking and partnerships with social entrepreneurs prevents exploitation of existing resources and creation of entrepreneurial environment in which sectors cooperate and complement each other. Good cross-sectoral collaboration leads to innovative and creative solutions aimed at economic and social development. The main goal of the paper is to explore examples of good practice of networking between social entrepreneurs and their key stakeholders (local governments, financial institutions, academia, civil society organizations and the media). The methodological approach is based on qualitative and interpretative paradigm, using in-depth semi-structured interviews as the main method of data collection. Target groups are representatives of key actors from various sectors, and the fieldwork encompasses a convenience sample of 5-10 respondents from different sectors. The study answers whether and what kind of networking practice between social enterprise and other sectors exists, and what are the characteristics of cross-sectoral collaboration in this field. The findings of this pilot research may serve for developing indicators for more comprehensive national study and representative sample. Also, they may serve as a good basis for the development of specific local policies aimed at development of social enterprises. Finally, the study may offer a guidelines for further studies dealing with the influence of social development of regions on the specifics of local cross- sectoral collaborations.

social entrepreneurship ; social problems ; networking ; cross-sectoral collaboration ; eastern Croatia

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