SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The time in which we currently live and will continue to live is a time of changes, which are comprehensive, deep and quick. They occur in almost all spheres and areas of human activity and life. Regardless of their causes, they are all structural changes whose consequences are primarily economic in their nature. The last three decades have been characterized by a rather significant increase in entrepreneurial activities, which is why they are often referred to as "the age of entrepreneurship", "entrepreneurial revolution" and "entrepreneurial renaissance". Enthusiasm towards the role of entrepreneurship in the economic development has had an impact on the development of social entrepreneurship in the last few decades. Thus, the new entrepreneurial culture has also spread to the social sector. Increasingly higher expectations are being set on social entrepreneurship in terms of addressing the needs in the social sector and achieving socio-economic security. Social entrepreneurship implies innovative and financially sustainable activities targeted at social problems. However, its commercial activities do not necessarily need to coincide with the social mission; rather, their purpose is to create financial resources to implement social objectives. Thus, social entrepreneurship can encompass a rather broad range of organizations and businesses – ranging from those which generate their own profit to those which obtain resources for other organizations that fulfill the social mission. This paper will explain the importance of the social entrepreneurship concept, entrepreneurship with moral and ethical integrity, criteria for its classification, as well as criticism of this concept. In the end, an overview of development of social entrepreneurship in the Republic of Croatia and in the world