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

Abstract

In 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.