The Establishment of Social Entrepreneurship Movements as a Response to the Transformation of Governments' Social Policies (The Case of Four EAEU Countries)

Abstract

Objective - This article summarizes research into the social entrepreneurship movement based on databases which include respondents from the following countries: the Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Belarus, Republic of Kazakhstan and Russian Federation. This article tries to relate the efficiency of social policy to social issues.

Methodology/Technique - We selected 180 acting social enterprises and 36 from 4 post-soviet countries and conducted interviews and observations to create a database. Based on defined key criteria, different types of social actors were classified and grouped.

Findings - The findings indicate that state funding for social services and social protection has fallen dramatically due to a sharp decline in GDP and in the residual shares of GDP allocated for social policy. Our analysis indicates that countries which experienced a transformation of government social policy have a greater variety of social actors. Through the database, we were able to define and classify 8 typical groups of social actors. Two of them - social activists and social reformers - can help a nation to create a new stable system for target social groups.

Novelty - Originality of the findings of this article.

Note: Type of Paper: Empirical

Keywords: Social entrepreneurship; social reformer; social activists, social policy; problem solution; social groups; social issues.

JEL Classification: L31, L38.