Social enterprises have lately become an attractive policy topic for both Western and Central Eastern European policy makers. While extensive research has been conducted on social enterprise in Western Europe (Defourny and Nyssens, 2013; Nyssens, 2006, Borzaga and Defourny, 2001; Borzaga and Becchetti, 2011; Pestoff and Brandsen, 2008; Pestoff, Brandsen and Verschuere, 2012), social enterprises are still under-researched in Eastern and South Eastern European countries. In light of the theoretical studies carried out, the practice of social enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe and the more structured experience of such institutions in Western Europe, it seems that their success can be related to some contextual and structural conditions, which can be distinguished in endogenous (e.g. high stocks of social capital; existence of a well
developed Third Sector; good propensity towards entrepreneurship) and exogenous factors (favorable legal framework, welfare reform ideas favorable to the opening ofthe public market to social enterprise through different policies, access to funding, a clear policy framework encouraging public private partnerships between public agencies and social enterprises (Borzaga, Galera, 2012). Against the background of comparing the trajectories of social enterprises in Central Euorope, this paper focuses on four selected
countries: Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia with a view to identifying the factors preventing their balanced development. The rationale for selecting these country studies is that their all distinguished -at least in theory- by a policy commitment oriented to supporting social enterprises (Vidovic, 2015;Les and Jeliazkova,2007;Les,2004; Lambru and Petrescu, 2013; ICF, 2015). However the recent introduction of new laws in Slovenia and Rumania as well as the development of National Support Strategies for the development of social enterprises in Bulgaria has yet to be translated into a fully enabling environment for social enterprises. The paper consists in two parts: a preliminary theoretical analysis that draws on neo-institutional theory (Barley and Tolbert, 1997; Tolbert and Zucker ,1996; Meyer and Rowan, 1977; DiMaggio and Powell ,1983; Beland,2005; Sapulveda,2014; Schmidt,2010) and four country studies aimed at explaining both country commonalities and variations.
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