Hybridity of social enterprise models and ecosystems

Abstract

The growth and development of social enterprises in the world represent a dynamic paradigm shift from the dualistic “market vs. state” and “private vs. public” institutional tradition towards more complex hybrid socioeconomic models, such as social enterprise. A number of research demonstrated the systemic impact of social enterprises on economic sustainability, regional development, and innovations. However, there is a lack of empirical studies, investigating the conditions in which social enterprises evolve. The presented research seeks to analyze how hybridity operates and manifests through social enterprises (microlevel) and the social enterprise ecosystem (macrolevel) in the three post-soviet countries: Ukraine, Lithuania, and Latvia. The research determines that hybridity is a significant factor to social enterprises and social enterprise ecosystem identity and development. This hybridity has a direct relation to sustainability, innovativeness, and efficiency of social enterprises. The analysis of social enterprise ecosystems shows that hybridity frames the supportive environment to social enterprise sector development through crosssectoral collaboration. The study indicates that enablement of the social enterprise sector requires an understanding of a complex and non-dualistic socioeconomic perspective.