Catholic Social Teaching as a Source of Enrichment of the Moral Dimension of Social Enterprise Management

Abstract

Social enterprises perceive social and environmental issues as primary objectives of their hybrid socio-economic activities. They believe that financial stability is a prerequisite, not a goal. This approach is similar to Catholic social teaching (CST). The detailed content of the social encyclicals is a valuable means of deeper exploration and enrichment of the moral dimension of social enterprise management. The following article analyses social entrepreneurship from the point of view of the fundamental principles of CST and theological premises. The reference to the management of a social enterprise of the supreme personalistic standard and principles such as the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity allows the moral dimension of this process to be understood more deeply. The paper was created based on a method appropriate to research focused on moral theology and CST. First, the content of selected literature on the subject (social entrepreneurship) and carefully selected theological-moral sources (especially papal documents and publications by CST researchers) were analysed. Subsequently, the results of the analysis were subjected to inference and conceptual work in relation to the adopted general research objective and specific research tasks: the phenomenon of social enterprises was described; the specific features and limitations of the social enterprise management process were identified; the fundamental principles of Catholic social teaching as normative criteria for social enterprise management were reviewed; the possibility of applying the aforementioned CST principles to social enterprise practice was discussed and presented, and the final conclusions were formulated.