Social enterprises and their ecosystems

Abstract

Social enterprises in many countries face a lack of legal recognition and insufficient institutional and financial support. Ecosystems that support their emergence and development are thus weak. Social enterprises respond to important societal challenges that are relevant to multiple stakeholders at different territorial levels (local, national and international). This multi-territorial nature of stakeholder networks in which social enterprises are embedded is also related to the ecosystem gaps, which prompt social enterprises to overcome weaknesses at one territorial level by utilising opportunities at other levels, and thereby seek overall viability and impact on society. The paper outlines a conceptual framework for the process of managing stakeholder networks within social enterprise ecosystems. That entails identification of key stakeholders (defined by their level of salience, based on Mitchell, Age and Wood, 1997) and the material and symbolic resources a social enterprise obtains from them and/or provides to them. The framework is applied to a case study of the Green Energy Cooperative (GEC) from Croatia. GEC was founded to facilitate local communities and citizens in the planning, development, management and financing of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency projects. However, given the underdevelopment of the relevant ecosystem in Croatia, fulfilling this ‘localised’ mission also simultaneously required strategic engagement of GEC with policymakers at the national level, as well as with EU and other international funding sources and advocacy organisations. Each of these territorial dimensions (related to local projects, national policies and international funding and advocacy) involves relationships with multiple stakeholders which need to be developed and maintained over time, if viability and impact are to be achieved.