The role of main institutions

International audienceSocial Enterprises (SEs) have received great deal of attention in Europe in recent years. European SEs especially are in the spotlight after the Social Business Initiative was launched by the EU Commission in 2011. SEs are perceived as being able to satisfy the growing need for social services in the context of decreasing public spending whilst also creating employment opportunities, especially for people who have been excluded from the labour market (Defourny and Nyssen, 2006; Borzaga et al., 2008). The positive understanding of the SEs presence in a society has increased in the policy discourse because of the economic crisis. It has also contributed to the increase in attention on the relationship between SEs and the system in which they are set. Since SEs are seen as having a positive impact on society and as contributors to human and economic development (Scarlato, 2012; Biggeri et al., 2016), in many countries the need emerged to understand the best methods to promote their establishment and continued success. In order to understand these issues, to contribute to the academic debate on SEs and to give useful policy advice on a truly enabling ecosystem, in November 2013 a consortium of 11 organisations started an ambitious three-year research project covering 10 countries: Albania, Austria, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Scotland and The Netherlands. The EFESEIIS research project had four main objectives: to identify the features of an “Enabling Eco-System for Social Entrepreneurship”; to identify the “New Generation” of Social Entrepreneurs; to build an “Evolutionary Theory of Social Entrepreneurship”; to provide effective policy advices to stakeholders. In order to pursue and achieve these research objectives, the consortium implemented a complex research design with different work packages built both on qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The results were analysed in detail to explore how social entrepreneurship and social enterprises emerged in the project partner’s countries - their co-evolution with major institutions, the reciprocal influence with the ecosystem in which they are set and how people that recently founded social enterprises differ from those that founded social enterprises many years ago. All project partners carried out in-depth case studies on the new generation of social enterprises. They also carried out several interviews and focus groups with stakeholders, together with a survey on social enterprises. As a result, more than 1,500 social entrepreneurs and stakeholders have been involved in the research activities during the three year project. Thanks to the passion, knowledge and experience of social entrepreneurs and stakeholders, the consortium was able to produce several reports, publications and policy recommendations. An excerpt of this wealth of information is included in this dissemination book with the aim of providing readers with an accessible overview of the main results of the research project EFESEIIS. The topics of the different chapters of the book are addressed in more detail in the academic papers, reports and publications available on the project website www.fp7-efeseiis.eu. Each chapter of the book briefly tackles one of the main subjects addressed during the research, as follows: - The first chapter presents the main results of the survey in order to provide a picture of European social entrepreneurs and social enterprises; - The second chapter presents the results of a behavioural experiment to identify the behaviour of decision makers in social enterprises and of decision makers in other types of enterprise; - The third chapter provides an overview of the structural features, enabling (or hindering) factors, biographical traits and survival strategies of the new generation of social entreprises based on 55 in-depth case studies; - The fourth chapter provides an insight into the role of social capital in the social economy; - In the fifth chapter the authors address the role of the main institutions in developing (or hindering) social enterprises; - In the sixth chapter, stakeholder network maps are used to identify four ‘ecosystem types’ across the 10 partner countries; - The seventh chapter gives an insight into how evolutionary theory can be used to account for the great differences in the ways that the social enterprise sector has matured and developed across Europe; - The eighth chapter provides a definition of an enabling ecosystem and a first analysis of ecosystems according to their software and hardware features. - The last chapter presents advice to stakeholders on how to improve the European ecosystem for social entrepreneurs. We believe that in light of all these strands of research, understanding which features of the system enable or hamper SEs to thrive in different contexts is of paramount importance. Moreover, these features need to be understood in an evolutionary perspective in which they co-evolve together with the SEs. The knowledge of how these evolutionary processes develop over time as a result of the various interactions between the features of the system and of the SEs can inform policy makers on how to draft policies that are able to create favourable conditions in which SEs can thrive. Thus, conclusions will summarize the main contributions of the EFESEIIS project and provide a set of policy advices for policy makers and the stakeholders of other SE