Social Entrepreneurship is a fairly new but increasingly popular way of creating social value and at the same time an opportunity to build sustainable organisations. The concept covers diversw forms of organisations that use innovative approaches to solve social issues through business means. This thesis shows how such organisations work through the example of the social enterprise Pragulic, which employs homeless as city guides. The aim of this thesis is to describe the operations of the enterprise from different perspectives (social-economical and political). Furthermore, it aims to discover which factors influence operations of the enterprise, what constitute a social impact on stakeholders and with which approach it corresponds the best. The first part of the thesis introduces the historical context and terms which are linked with social entrepreneurship. It describes the most significant areas, reflects the regional diversity and shape a new methodology for research on social enterprises. The Empirical part combines methods such as autoethnography which reflect personal experience of a founder, semi-structured interviews with guides, and analysis of documents, which are link to the organization's work. Key words: Social Entrepreneurship, Pragulic, homeless, innovation

This thesis aims to examine the internationalization of Swedish social entrepreneurs, with the purpose to acquire a more profound understanding of how social entrepreneurial supporting institutions influence their discovery of international opportunities, as well as their exploitation of the identified opportunities. The study is conducted with qualitative methodology and was conducted by examining the concept of Swedish social entrepreneurship carried out in an international context.

Fire prevention is a critical component in achieving social welfare and prosperity. The lack of worldwide fire prevention leads to an increasing number of fires, as well as to a greater number of fire-related deaths, injuries, and fire-related property damage. Traditionally, fire prevention has been the responsibility of individual governments, while fire prevention duties are usually carried out by local fire departments. Such an approach is very common and is observed globally. Until now, the above response has been successful. For example, due to fire prevention measures applied in the 1990s, the number of fires caused by open flames (such as candles) was significantly reduced. Since 2014, the number of fires in some Western countries (e.g., the US and the UK) shows an increasing trend. In March 2019,11, people have died in fires across Connecticut (O’Neill 2019). From 2017 to 2018, the number of people who died in fires in Mississippi grew by more than 40 percent (Moore 2019). Among the main reasons for this growth are new combustible materials, reduced fire prevention funds, and more dynamic lifestyles. Lack of fire prevention consequently increases fire risks, and, as a result, health inequalities. According to Whitehead and Dahlgren (2007), health inequalities are health differences that are avoidable, unjust, unfair, and unacceptable. The question arises: do current fire prevention services allow sufficient support for people to be safe from fire, specifically in domestic environments? Can social enterprises play a role and how do they fit into the fire prevention supply chain. The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of social enterprises and their influence on supply chains, in general, and specifically for fire prevention supply chains. This phenomenon is evaluated through the lenses of social capital theory and institutional theory. Research (Rothstein and Stolle 2008) has shown the effects that social capital has on institutions, or simply how can it be used as a strategic resource (Gulati and Gargiulo 1999). Institutional and Social Capital Theories set the foundation of how social enterprises transform and contribute to sustainable supply chains, plus how they solve social problems, specifically fire safety (Patuelli and Savioli 2016). According to Wallace and Wallace (1997), social capital provides a collective resource that can be mobilized by individuals to enable communities to develop resilience against severe threats to public health, such as social exclusion or even unemployment. By identifying three dimensions of sustainable development: techno-economic, ecological and social (Clift 2003; Hutchins and Sutherland 2008; Yakovleva and Sarkis 2010), there are various social capital diffusion mechanisms for building sustainability within supply chains through social enterprise involvement. Transforming supply chains by building social legitimacy and by altering institutional norms, are examples of providing competitive advantages to supply chains and supply chain partners of social enterprises. This research seeks to understand social enterprises and entrepreneurship capabilities transform institutions to strengthen supply chain sustainability. Ideally, these institutions should provide solutions to the problem of decreased awareness of sustainable fire prevention, as well as available resources for fire prevention. This research focus is primarily on social sustainability and safety through fire prevention. The importance of this study lies in our contributions to help diffuse socially sustainable solutions and practices across supply chains. In this case, similar to other social concerns, the problem of fire prevention is a critical one within supply chains and society. Understanding the role of social enterprise to help diffuse these norms and practices help to understand general supply chain sustainability concerns for competitive and social reasons. Methodologically, a qualitative, exploratory method was applied. To analyze the data collected for this research, we used a Thematic Analysis. Three supply chains with social enterprises as a focal firm were investigated. This research contributes by furthering the theory of sustainable supply chains with the involvement of social enterprise; or hybrid organizations - that have both a social and a strategic financial outlook. The research involves the utilization of Thematic Analysis, and semi-structured interviews of three fire prevention-focused supply chains. This study is the first that investigates fire prevention from the perspective of supply chains and social enterprises. The results will inform other types of sustainability and social enterprises, which include humanitarian, environmental, educational, and poverty-based foci.

Social Entrepreneurship is a research field associated with social value creation and inclusive growth. Social ventures primarily have social goals and reinvest their surpluses to support their mission. Sustainability of social enterprises is a debatable topic. Some researchers and practitioners believe in the long-term sustainability of social enterprises while others cast doubt on this opinion. Therefore, it is an interesting research question to study whether social enterprises are sustainable or not. Reputable scientific resources have been analyzed in order to form a conceptual framework. Two kinds of quantitative methods have been used. The first study addresses the relative financial sustainability of social enterprises by researching and comparing their exit and entry rates to the respective figures of commercial ventures. The second study evaluates the impact sustainability by assessing patterns on employment and involvement statistics of work integration social ventures. Both empirical studies are mainly limited to the Swedish market. The results reveal that though newly founded social ventures have better survival rates compared to the commercial businesses social enterprise is a relatively new field characterized by overall higher dynamics of exit and entry. Additionally, social enterprises that have established themselves on the market are more likely to employee and reach more people, although there are a limited number of such ventures and the most successful cohorts seem to be the recent ones.

This thesis aims to analyze how members of a coworking space create a Sense of Community through the different types of social interactions that occur. Furthermore, it is investigated how the Sense of Community contributes to Word of Mouth. The authors conducted a qualitative case study of Norrsken House where members and managers of the coworking space were interviewed. The results of the study reveal that a Sense of Community is created through various interactions and occurrences. Additionally, it is stated that the creation of a Sense of Community for members is complex, where different experiences trigger different social elements. Even though there are similarities identified among the interviewed members, the evidence shows that the reality of each individual is based on previous experiences. Moreover, the authors show that the perceived Sense of Community could result in both positive and negative Word of Mouth activities between members and peers outside of the community. Based on the results, the authors elucidate how managers can design strategies to make the product offering more attractive.

Social economy is an economic activity with social and economic objectives, which can lead to the development of society and offer a new direction for the welfare state. It combines the principles of prosperity, sustainable development, social inclusion and equal opportunities with entrepreneurship and charitable activities for the benefit of needy and disadvantaged persons. This thesis focuses on the concept of social economy in the Czech Republic and abroad and highlights the social entrepreneurship as an opportunity to address social exclusion and unemployment of disadvantaged members of the society. The practical part contains Qualitative research on the effects of employment on the handicapped persons in social firm "Modrý domeček".

Virtual world is having an increasingly important role for us. Not only it affects our personal lives but also our shopping habits. Today it is more or less a necessity to be present online for many companies. The submitted work is the first exploratory analysis of websites content of social enterprises in the Czech Republic. This sample consists of 128 social enterprises, which were supported by a Call no. 30 "Social economy" of the European Social Fund. Supported organizations gain a considerable amount of funds for thein development. With incoming public finances it is necessary to raise a question of transparency and openness of these organizations. Work describes which information is available through websites of social enterprises, evaluates their level of transparency and monitors whether these organizations recognize themselves as social enterprises. It was examined whether organizations disclose information for which they could be described as a social enterprise organization that is in compliance with the principles created by the Thematic Network for Social Economy (TESSEA) a network, which created the first Czech definition of social enterprise. The results show that most social enterprises have a website. However, although the information sought on websites were more or less basic,...

Studien syftar till att undersöka sociala entreprenörers attityd till risk och om riskattityden har något samband med karaktärsdraget altruism. Tidigare forskning jämför traditionella entreprenörer med sociala entreprenörer i relation till risk och har funnit olika resultat. En av anledningarna är att risk är komplext och kan undersökas på olika sätt. Dessutom varierar definitionen av socialt entreprenörskap mellan olika studier, områden och länder. Vår studie använder sociala entreprenörer som målgrupp utifrån en bestämd definition och tar genom en enkät reda på deras attityd till risk. Till följd av tidigare studier som riktat in sig på olika personligheter och karaktärsdrag inom vår målgrupp valde vi att studera karaktärsdraget altruism och dess påverkan på riskattityden. Studien undersöker på vilket sätt entreprenörernas grad av altruism kan vara kopplad till deras riskattityd. Insamlade data från 100 sociala entreprenörer används som underlag för Spearman r korrelationstester. Respondenternas svar på olika riskfrågor skapar ett riskindex som sedan analyseras mot deras svar på frågor om altruism. Resultatet visar att det finns korrelationer mellan vissa svar om altruism och riskindexet vilket betyder att altruism är en påverkningsfaktor för sociala entreprenörers riskattityd. Respondenterna visade sig vara relativt riskneutrala med tendens åt det riskaverta hållet mer än att vara risksökande. Vidare visar resultatet att kvinnliga och manliga sociala entreprenörer får vissa liknande samband och vissa helt olika. Dessutom finner studien fler samband mellan de respondenter som anser sig utveckla affärsmässiga lösningar på samhällsproblem jämfört med de som inte gör det. / The purpose of this paper is to examine if social entrepreneurs’ risk attitude is correlated to the specific characteristics of their altruism. Previous research has shown different results when comparing traditional entrepreneurs with social entrepreneurs in relation to risk. One of the reasons for this is that risk as a subject is complex and can be studied in many different ways. The definition of social entrepreneurship also varies between different research contexts and countries. The target group in our research is social entrepreneurs from a set definition, and with the use of a survey we find out their attitude towards risk. Previous research has also emphasized the importance of the target groups personalities, characteristics and other traits. Our study originated from the characteristic altruism and its effect on social entrepreneurs’ risk attitude. This study investigates in which way the degree of altruism can correlate to the risk attitude. Data from 100 social entrepreneurs is used to carry out Spearman r correlation in the data. The respondents answers to questions about risky situations created a risk index which was subsequently compared to their answers regarding altruism. The results showed correlations between a number of answers to the questions concerning altruism and the risk index, which means that altruism influence their risk attitude. The respondents turned out to be risk neutral with a tendency towards more risk averse than risk seeking. Furthermore, the results show that the female and male social entrepreneurs have some similar correlations and some with a distinct difference. There are also differences in the results between the respondents who answered yes and no to the question about whether or not they develop business solutions for social problems.This study is written and conducted in Swedish.

Narratives in corporate storytelling is a powerful and persuasive tool for validation of Corporate Social Responsibility. To further their social mission, IKEA partner with social entrepreneurs, a collaboration which produce products or services for IKEA while creating incomes for the social entrepreneurs, claimed by IKEA as a win-win. In this thesis, the win-win narrative is analysed with a management theory applied in a critical perspective in conjunction with a narrative method. The aim is to investigate the validity of the win-win narrative produced by IKEA in this partnership to identify to what extent this narrative meets the reality of IKEAs CSR and human rights commitments. Issues investigated are to what end this narrative is produced, what is the dominant narrative, what is not presented and how are the social entrepreneurs represented in the IKEA narrative.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities School of Social Sciences Department of Anthropology, University of the Witwatersrand, August 2017 / This study engages with recent works on entrepreneurship and microfinance in the developing world as it seeks to understand youths’ interactions with microfinance initiatives in a specific African context. Using the case of urban Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, I apply the theory of value to question the notion that ‘entrepreneurship’ can be separated from other aspects of cultural and social lives in the community. By providing business grants and entrepreneurship training, microfinance institutions assume that youth from poor backgrounds will also be able to start their own business, sustain it and succeed financially. However, this relationship is not well established and need to be further explored empirically and ethnographically. Through ethnographic observation of three material sites, namely family, market, and the project that provided a business grant to 52 secondary school graduates, I look at how youth, as potential entrepreneurs in the context of limited access to formal education and employment in urban areas, make choices on the use of money in relation to entrepreneurship investments, daily livelihoods, and future plans. The general framework that informs youth entrepreneurship programs posits that the lack of capital, skills, business knowledge and poor policy framework explains, to a larger extent, why business ventures are not successful among youth living in poverty. However, this research indicates that family dynamics, youth aspirations, belief systems, and nature of interventions programs are factors that influence youth engagements with entrepreneurship and the outcome of their business ventures. / XL2018