This thesis is positioned within the intersection of social entrepreneurship and artificialintelligence research streams and explores a timely topic and emerging phenomenon. Whileresearch has started paying attention to the role of artificial intelligence in various aspects oforganizational life, we turn our attention to how social entrepreneurs interact with artificialintelligence to achieve their social missions. We conduct a qualitative study and use aninterpretive research paradigm with an inductive approach to enrich the current understandingof the role of artificial intelligence in shaping processes through which social entrepreneursattempt to accomplish their social mission. Our primary data are collected through semi-structured interviews with social entrepreneurs who are located in different countries andemploy artificial intelligence in their daily work. The analysis revealed that social entrepreneursengage in creating new relations or building on existing relations to enable AI in four maindimensions during the social entrepreneurial process: AI implementation and management; AIdesign and development; AI ethics and openness; and community and collaboration. To betterunderstand the role of those dimensions, we discuss those findings in light of a framework thatis developed to further understand the processes through which social mission is achieved. Thefindings contribute to the existing body of literature on both social entrepreneurship and AI,providing a comprehensive understanding of the role of AI in social entrepreneurship, andoffering practical recommendations for social entrepreneurs who want to exploit AI. Further,they demonstrate how and where AI can be a powerful entity for social entrepreneurs inaddressing social and environmental challenges. However, we also shed light on thecomplexities and challenges that are inherent in AI management and showcase that AI is not asilver bullet to address social objectives.

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Social entrepreneurship and related concepts have received an increasing amount of attention during the last years. Social entrepreneurship is characterized by ventures with a social mission, seeking to address societal challenges and needs. The social goal is the primary goal of the business activities whereas generating economic profit is not the main objective, yet still possible. Social entrepreneurship is often seen as a powerful tool for creating sustainable development, a fundamental goal of many businesses, countries and organizations today. Just like any other firm, social entrepreneurs need finance in order to exist. This thesis seeks to examine how Swedish social entrepreneurs finance their businesses. A questionnaire was sent out to Swedish social entrepreneurs and the results suggest that Swedish social entrepreneurs to a large extent rely on governmental funds and support, personal resources and internally generated capital. Access to the traditional banking system seems to be limited compared to traditional entrepreneurs. There seems to be a gap between the demand and supply of external capital since the majority of the respondents believe that they have a limited access to external capital. 60 per cent of the respondents reported a positive economic result in the last fiscal year. Furthermore, the majority of the respondents want to expand their businesses in the future but the largest obstacles seem to be lack of financing and political aspects. The respondents hope for, among other things, an improved attitude towards social entrepreneurship in general, more financing and increased collaboration with Swedish municipalities. Altogether the results highlight the role of the government in supporting and promoting this type of firms in Sweden.

In the past decade, a new entrepreneurial phenomenon aimed at seeding start-up companies has emerged across the globe: the social enterprise (SE) accelerator program. These accelerators focus on scaling social entrepreneurs by accelerating their journey to the market. Different actors like business reporters, entrepreneurs, and angel investors have expressed skepticism around the viability of the accelerator model. To research this sustainability, this thesis studied the revenue models of SE accelerators. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts working at SE accelerators in Stockholm. These four identified getting revenue from partnerships, government institutions, and philanthropy and donations. Consulting contracts, equity shares and fees were not used by these four but were discussed as potential revenue streams. All respondents emphasized the importance of revenue model diversification and were currently working on strategies to act on this. Diversifying the revenue models of SE accelerators will increase the sustainability of their revenue models. This might be the first step from the focus of monetary gain towards a society where business is created to do good.

Due to their innovative capacity and social mission, social enterprises build resilience and cohesion in communities by providing for vulnerable groups that governments and markets tend to overlook. In the recovery from COVID-19, while countries attempt to regain lost ground towards their sustainable development goals, protections and support to social entrepreneurship will be vital. This study examines this issue in the context of Ukraine, where the social and economic effects of the pandemic had been exacerbated by the war in Donbas and a decades-long history of unstable economic development. The February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which occurred while this research was concluding, is factored into the analysis. Social entrepreneurship presented an opportunity to contribute towards the development priorities laid out by the Ukrainian government, but various challenges - including a lack of corresponding legislation and negative public perception - stood in the way of the sector’s progress. By analyzing scholarly articles, policy documents, and news reports related to Ukrainian social enterprise, as well as the responses of 13 social enterprises to an electronic survey, this study explores the experiences of self-identified social enterprises in Ukraine during COVID-19, before the Russian invasion. This inquiry brings awareness to the socially-oriented businesses that were working towards sustainable development in Ukraine before the country was forced into the newest iteration of war at the hands of Russia.

This work is concerned with the financing of Chinese social entrepreneurship. China is experiencing an all-time high in terms of pollution, as well as increasing social unrest. The introduction of a market economy in the country has led to a rapid economic growth, but has left many issues unsolved. The mass lay-offs that followed therationalization of State-Owned Enterprises in the 1990s created a large unemployment,and the industrialization process has only very recently been accompanied by measures toprotect the environment. To tackle those issues, more and more are appealing to theefficiency of the very same market economy to produce sustainable and scalable solutions.To better understand the financing landscape that presents itself to entrepreneurs in needof capital, a literature and interview-based study has been conducted to summarize it interms of sources, stage, efficiency and average size. Unfortunately, few sources of capital have been found to be available to them, and none of them can be described as easily accessible. It is therefore recommended that the different actors involved in the marketwork together to lower these barriers.

There has been an unexpected wave of growth in social entrepreneurship globally (Bornstein, 2004). This growth is followed by the number of research in the field. Academic research has been mainly focused on defining what it is, what it does and does not have in common with commercial entrepreneurial activity (Nicholls, 2006). Thus, there has not been many studies related to the business model of social enterprise. Osterwalder & Pigneur (2010) believes that every organization has a business model, regardless the word ‘business’ not used as descriptor. This description includes social enterprise. Social enterprise, not unlike business enterprise, creates and delivers value and it must generate enough revenue to cover its expenses. By acknowledging that social enterprise has a business model, it opens itself to business model innovation with advantages to optimize its operations, deliver more values through effective channels, capture more values through profits and growth and drive innovation. This research is conducted on Indonesia Mengajar, a social enterprise in Indonesia that has no experience in business model design or Business Model Canvas using qualitative methods and interpretive paradigm. Primary data is collected from interviews with Indonesia Mengajar. Secondary data comes from books, articles, journals and websites. The data are analysed with grounded theory method. By completing Business Model Canvas (Osterwalder & Pigneur) complemented with literature review and critical analysis of Indonesia Mengajar, the objective of this research to understand business model of social enterprise can be achieved. From this research it is found that adjustments are necessary for Business Model Canvas to capture the business model of social enterprise and based on the findings, it is concluded how social enterprise creates, delivers and captures value.

In the final qualifying work, the main approaches to social entrepreneurship and the factors of its development are considered. The resource centers of the Ural Federal District are analyzed and their role in the development of social and entrepreneurial initiatives is demonstrated. As a result, a conclusion was drawn on the uneven development of institutions supporting social entrepreneurship at the regional level. / В работе рассмотрены основные подходы к социальному предпринимательству и факторы его развития. Проанализированы ресурсные центры Уральского федерального округа и продемонстрирована их роль в развитии социально-предпринимательских инициатив. В качестве вывода было сделано заключение о неравномерности развития институтов поддержки социального предпринимательства на региональном уровне.

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