The Efficient Applicability Limits of Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The efficiency of social entrepreneurship depends on the ability of social enterprises to be sustainable. So, this paper implies deriving the efficient applicability limits of social entrepreneurship in terms of their sustainability. The more sustainable a social enterprise is, the wider its efficient applicability limits are. So, it's a novel approach towards studying the efficiency of social enterprises and the limits of their efficient applicability. The case study approach is used to estimate these limits, and three social enterprises are taken for this analysis, namely, APOPO, Benetech and Conserve. The insights of this paper suggest that the burden on social enterprises should be dosed, because their viability depends, in most part, on implementing the respective social policy. Under the excessive burden on social enterprises they could be destroyed, whereas under the insufficient burden some of their capacities could be idle, and that would suggest that they are inefficient. Eight factors of increasing the efficient applicability limits of social entrepreneurship (namely the state support of social enterprises, the aid provided for social enterprises by the private sponsors, the support for social enterprises provided by the international organizations, the support for social enterprises provided by the external sources of loan and emission financing, creation of special economic zones in different innovation centres, in which social enterprises are formed, using social enterprises as sub-contractors of the private business in the process of social outsourcing, the position of public opinion towards social entrepreneurship, the strategy of designing and marketing the products of social enterprises) were derived. The measures of the state support, enlarging the efficient applicability limits of social enterprises are provided. Also, the creation of special economic zones in the innovation centres, in which social enterprises are formed, is proposed, as well as the mechanism of subsidizing social enterprises by the state and creating some special conditions for the microfinance and social stock markets as the main external sources of financing social enterprises are suggested.