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GLOBAL LEGISLATION TRENDS IN SOCIAL ENTERPRISES

I. Atanasova

Abstract

Social enterprises are a relatively new and expanding field of study. They could be private for-profit, non-profit and hybrid organizations with a social mission that use business approaches to achieve their objectives. They typically function upon a range of laws to govern their creation, day-to-day management, tax arrangements and dissolution. Since social enterprises are in the inter-section of the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, policy makers have, in certain countries, sought to encourage it by creating a certain legal framework. However, as businesses that prioritize achievement of social and environmental benefits over profit-making for their owners, they have the potential to make an enormous difference in economic development. Traditional business law and the structures it provides prioritize the social mission of the enterprise as an legal entity over the interests of the shareholders. The paper analyzes the legal framework of the social enterprises globally, the various forms under which they operate in developed and developing countries, and the implications for public policies. Social entrepreneurship as part of the social and solidarity economy is constantly developing. Inevitably, this dynamics also affects the constantly changing legal regulation of these enterprises in order to make them more efficient and sustainable. The most frequent legal organizational forms of these enterprises are the non-profit legal entities and the ones with economic and hybrid organizations. Each country, based on its sovereignty, creates different policies for the realization of social entrepreneurship, which also reflects on the legal organizational forms of the social enterprises. Accordingly, the different state policies are aimed at promoting or not such initiatives. The article attempts to explore and analyze the legal framework of social enterprises on a global scale and the different forms of functioning of social enterprises in developed and developing countries.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2019V/1.1/S02.017

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