SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: CASE OF GEORGIA

The concept of social entrepreneurship is developing rapidly, and attracting progressively increased attention from many spheres. The idea of social entrepreneurship combines the passion of a social mission with business. Since major social institutions are often regarded as ineffective and inefficient, social entrepreneurs are needed to solve rising social problems with new approaches and models. The meaning of social entrepreneurship varies with people and culture. Many use it to describe a nonprofit organization, some associate it with businesses that engage in corporate social responsibility, and others use the notion to refer nonprofit organizations starting for-profit ventures. Social entrepreneurship is mostly beneficial for developing countries. This initiative is gaining popularity also in Georgia. Here, the concept is mainly associated with nonprofit/ nongovernmental organizations. The current legislation does not take into account Social Enterprise as a legal entity. Rather, Georgian NGOs launch social enterprises with start-up grants awarded by international donors. The primary objective of this study is to present an overview of the social entrepreneurship activities by Georgian organizations. This study is based on secondary data collected from various webpages and related articles. The key research questions are: What does social entrepreneurship mean in Georgia? How this concept is implemented here? The research demonstrated that social entrepreneurship in Georgia is associated with NGOs, which establish businesses to ensure continuous funding for their social projects, causing less dependability on contributors. The social entrepreneurship sphere in Georgia ranges from bio-products, agriculture, media, arts and culture, medical centers for vulnerable groups, to small souvenir, toy or wheelchair factories. Although social entrepreneurship is a recent phenomenon in Georgia, the interest towards it is increasing significantly. Social enterprises are operating in a small scale, yet the tendency shows its future spreading