Citation

Simanaviciene Z, Dirma V, Kapranova L, Beniusyte D, Simanavicius A. Montenegrin Journal of Economics 2017; 13(1): 97-110.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017)

DOI

10.14254/1800-5845/2017.13-1.7

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Daily life in the world is accompanied by a variety of global social problems such as discrimination, ignorance, suicides, poverty, hunger, environmental pollution and several others frequently caused by human beings. These have been particularly exacerbated by the recent and arguably ongoing economic crisis. Traditional global market makers and participants are gradually getting involved in the creation of social welfare while acting in a socially responsible manner, however, such actions are often led by a certain "fashion" or public pressure. Social entrepreneurship is cited as one of those alternatives. This business model is driven by the desire to have social impact, it is one of the main tools being used as a response to fight against growing social exclusion and unemployment, dealing with sensitive regional problems. According to European Commission, one of four start-ups each year is a social business company. It is being championed as a new opportunity to reduce inequality and exclusion so as to encourage economic growth. However, although social entrepreneurship has won the attention of scientists, its inconsistent theoretical basis and very limited perception are widely argued. It is claimed that poor perception of the social business model is a major barrier to the development of such entrepreneurship in Europe. Lithuania is mentioned as one of seven countries where social entrepreneurship development lags behind and, therefore, is not involved in most of comparative reports of European countries. Accordingly, a lack of concrete data about this business model development and perception in Lithuania and its comparability with other countries is noted. The main object - Lithuanian, Italian and British social business models. The aim of article - compared Lithuanian, Italian and British social business models. The main results of study. Social entrepreneurship creates 6% of GDP in Europe. There is abo- ut 2 million social companies in the European Union which employ more than 2,06% of the active population workforce, most of which are men. An empirical study of Lithuanian population perception and awareness about social enterprises stressed that a great number of residents do not know anything about the existence of these social models. Those that know often tend to confuse it with other social business models or the social business model itself. Given the low level of population awareness about social enterprises there arises a need of awareness promotion. © 2017, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

A social entrepreneur; Comparison of social business models; Social business; Social companies; Social economy