Suchergebnisse

There has been overly interest regarding social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in theory and practice. In this paper the author introduces the workings of governance of small social enterprises i.e. social co-operatives, acting in most cases for the purpose of work and social integration of the marginalized, at the bottom of the pyramid of socio-economic system. The aim of this paper is to provide insights into under researched topic of governance among social co-operatives, which have become a unique breed in social enterprise and co-operative landscape in Poland since 2007. Having collected vast amount of data through in-depth interviews with social co-operative members and founders, observation, and participation to the meetings in organizations supporting social enterprise in Pomeranian province[1], the author employs descriptive and exploratory case analysis of 5 social co-operatives. Because of the space constraints only selected data are presented in the paper. The author proposes three models of social co-operative governance types: 'small democratic community', 'business providing jobs' and 'integrated family like'.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.90.4.14257

Social entrepreneurship3, as a field of research, has gained enormous interest of academics in management and entrepreneurship literature for almost 30 years now. Also, scholars in other intellectual domains like economics, finance, marketing, political science, sociology and few others, have found it fascinating. As a term, it is common in public discourses and has found interest among policy makers, corporations, media, different groups of practitioners and professionals. As a phenomenon it is not new, although the SE term has been only recently coined (Banks, 1972; Drucker, 1979). For far more than two centuries great individuals and groups have tried to tackle the societal challenges, using economic means, such as the Rochdale Pioneers who inspired cooperative ideals, and Florence Nightingale – an English nurse and social activist, who changed the patient care landscape (Nicholls, 2006). Many of the ventures and actions of social initiatives can be traced to the earlier, medieval or even ancient times. Today, social initiatives and social enterprise have emerged in particular countries and regions as a result of their historical institutional trajectories, and "social enterprise landscape ZOO" (Young & Brewer, 2016) has become very heterogeneous. The interest of management and entrepreneurship research into the phenomenon has resulted in an unprecedented increase in scholarly output. The historical analysis of SE research (Moss, Lumpkin & Short, 2017) published in key journals and databases shows an increase from one paper to 45 papers published per year between 1990 and 2010. SE centers established in universities like Oxford, Harvard and Cambridge have designed degree programmes, dedicated textbooks, and separate SE conferences, special journals like Social Enterprise Journal, Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and many more have been introduced for educational and publication purposes. SE has become popular as a response to the inabilities of governments and business to solve pressing social problems, including poverty, social exclusion, and environmental issues. All of the above are manifested in the diversity of different SE initiatives. Thus, we express our interest to explain and predict SE and social enterprise as phenomena, to identify related antecedents and outcomes, but also to look into the box of SE processes. This special issue attempts to respond to this interest. Diverse methodological approaches including descriptive, explanatory or exploratory ones are included in the papers in this issue. SE phenomenon is studied on an individual, organizational, and even a macro level. Different data is employed: current or archival data, primary or secondary, referring to different country settings such as Taiwan, Poland, Italy and England. Through the inclusion of such diverse perspectives and context, this issue works as a holistic approach to the phenomenon under analysis. In the following sections of this paper, we first provide a succinct overview of SE as a phenomenon and research field. We summarize the definitional debate and point to valuable theoretical frameworks for studying SE. Next, we introduce individual authors' contributions to the issue and, finally, we propose further suggestions for future research.

"This third volume of the book series the Entrepreneurship SIG at the European Academy of Management brings together contributions on aspects characterizing the field of entrepreneurship, such as entrepreneurial behavior and mindsets and business models, but addressed in light of some of the dynamics of change that characterize the current context, such as digitalization. Moreover, the book also discusses emerging issues in academic debate, including in the wake of the recent COVID 19 pandemic, such as resilience, and relevant business contexts, such as that of family businesses. The book valorizes different contexts and key strengths of the European perspective."

The time of publishing this research volume marks the tenth anniversary of the Strategic Interest Group (SIG) Entrepreneurship of the European Academy of Management (EURAM). After various back-office formation efforts in 2010 (see Lundberg, 2014: vii-xiv for more details), the SIG Entrepreneurship was founded and launched in 2011 with a dedicated symposium, and had its first full scale operations in 2012. This new SIG Entrepreneurship acknowledges the growing interest in entrepreneurship as a major knowledge domain with high practical and political relevance. With its contrasting perspective of value and venture creation, entrepreneurship both complements and challenges traditional management research in its research topics as well as its methodological approaches. Rather than dictating topics and trends, the SIG Entrepreneurship has pursued since its beginning in 2010 a bottom-up approach by letting its active members determine the research foci, which are captured each year anew in the conference tracks of the EURAM annual meeting. The growth of the SIG Entrepreneurship is the result of the strong commitment of its current and all past SIG officers – the editors of this research volume – to promote entrepreneurship as a strong an innovative field of research with a broad spectrum of socially and politically relevant themes, which can be addressed through a variety of modern methodological approaches. This approach has resulted in attracting ever and ever more members devoted to share their research results, to develop networking activities together, and to be actively involved in the management of the SIG. We are proud to say that after 10 years, Entrepreneurship is the SIG featuring the most research contributions at the annual EURAM conference in Dublin 2020. To emphasize and promote the diversity of innovative research topics, as well as the multiple nationalities of the researchers representing the SIG Entrepreneurship, we decided in 2014 to publish our first research volume on "entrepreneurship as a working attitude, as a mode of thinking and an everyday practice." With the growing diversity of the field and our SIG, we see today the necessity of a renewed snapshot of what is currently going on within the European entrepreneurship research community. Accordingly, our second volume on "European Entrepreneurship Research and Practice" carries the representative subtitle "A Multifaceted Effort Towards Integration of Different Perspectives." In the subsequent chapters, we are very fortunate and proud to present eight innovative contributions by researchers of our SIG. By promoting these advances in entrepreneurship, we wish to invite, in particular, young entrepreneurship researchers from Europe and all over the world to join our SIG and contribute to a distinct European perspective of entrepreneurship research, practice, and policy.

"The tradition of European scholars on entrepreneurship has been consolidated during the last three decades and an increasingly distinct European school of thought has emerged as a consequence. This development provides as solid base for the future development of the field where Europe and its entrepreneurship scholars will play an increasingly prominent role in the development of the field. The distinct focus of the book is key European features - 'contexts matter' - to promote and stimulate what 'European' might mean in any given context. The book valorizes different contexts and key strengths of the European perspective."