Share:


Competences necessary for a social entrepreneur: a case study of Latvia

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship as a specific kind of business has been developing in Latvia since 2018, and it is a little researched field. Achieving the goals of social entrepreneurship is facilitated by several factors, including the competences of the social entrepreneur him/herself. The present research aims to identify the general basic knowledge, skills and competences necessary for a social entrepreneur in Latvia. The authors made a review of theoretical literature on the role of managerial competencies in social enterprises and analysed the results of surveys of social entrepreneurs and their institutional partners – university teaching personnel – conducted in Latvia. The research found that there were areas of general knowledge, skills and competences of social entrepreneurs that were rated as equally important by both groups surveyed, yet the social entrepreneurs gave more importance to competences related to business goals and opportunities. The present research makes a scientific contribution in two aspects: 1) the identified general competencies required for a social entrepreneur could serve as a basis for further research to measure the actual competencies of social entrepreneurs; 2) the research contributes to an institutional framework for the social entrepreneurship ecosystem by developing recommendations for cooperation partners – those involved in adult lifelong learning, incl. universities, for the development of competencies in social entrepreneurs.

Keyword : social entrepreneur, social entrepreneurship, knowledge, skills, competencies, survey

How to Cite
Sannikova, A., Vevere, V., & Titko, J. (2023). Competences necessary for a social entrepreneur: a case study of Latvia. Business: Theory and Practice, 24(2), 604–612. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2023.19703
Published in Issue
Dec 21, 2023
Abstract Views
395
PDF Downloads
316
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Ahmad, S., & Bajwa, I. A. (2023). The role of social entrepreneurship in socio-economic development: A meta-analysis of the nascent field. Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, 15(1), 133–157. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEEE-04-2021-0165

Amini, Z., Arasti, Z., & Bagheri, A. (2018). Identifying social entrepreneurship competencies of managers in social entrepreneurship organizations in healthcare sector. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 8, Article 19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40497-018-0102-x

Austin, J. E., & Reficco, E. A. (2009). Corporate social entrepreneurship. The International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law, 11(4). https://ssrn.com/abstract=1490345

Austin, J., Stevenson, H., & Wei-Skillern, J. (2006). Social and commercial entrepreneurship: Same, different or both? Revista de Administração, 47(3). https://doi.org/10.5700/rausp1055

Bacq, S., & Janssen, F. (2011). The multiple faces of social entrepreneurship: A review of definitional issues based on geographical and thematic criteria. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 23(5–6), 373–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/08985626.2011.577242

Banks, J. A. (1972). The sociology of social movements. Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-01452-1_4

Baron, R. A., &, Markman G. D. (2000). Beyond social capital: How social skills can enhance entrepreneurs’ success. The Academy of Management Executive (1993–2005), 14(1), 106–116. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2000.2909843

Boven, H. (1953). Social responsibilities of the businessman. University of Iowa Faculty Connections. https://uipress.uiowa.edu/books/social-responsibilities-businessman

Chee, Y., E. (2004). An ecological perspective on the valuation of ecosystem services. Biological Conservation, 120(4), 549–565. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2004.03.028

Davidavičienė, V., & Davidavičius, S. (2022, May 12–13). Corporative social entrepreneurship: Concept development trends. In 12th International Scientific Conference “Business and management 2022” (pp. 650–656). Vilnius, Lithuania. Vilnius Gediminas Technical University. https://doi.org/10.3846/bm.2022.879

Davidavičienė, V., & Raudeliūnienė, J. (2021). Corporate social entrepreneurship practice: Lithuanian case analysis. Journal of System and Management Sciences, 11(4), 218–231. https://doi.org/10.33168/JSMS.2021.0411

Davidavičienė, V., & Raudeliūnienė, J. (2022). Corporate social entrepreneurship practice: Lithuanian case study in public and private organizations. Journal of System and Management Sciences, 12(2), 548–569. https://doi.org/10.33168/JSMS.2022.0230

Dees, J. G. (2001). The meaning of social entrepreneurship. https://centers.fuqua.duke.edu/case/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2015/03/Article_Dees_MeaningofSocialEntrepreneurship_2001.pdf

Dees, J. G., & Anderson, B. (2006). Framing a theory of social entrepreneurship: Building on two schools of practice and thought. Research on Social Entrepreneurship: Understanding and Contributing to an Emerging Field, 1(3), 39–66. https://centers.fuqua.duke.edu/case/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2015/02/BookChapter_Dees_FramingTheoryofSE_2006.pdf

Drayton, B. (2011). Collaborative entrepreneurship: How social entrepreneurs have learned to tip the world by working in global teams. Ashoka. https://doi.org/10.1162/INOV_a_00068

European Commission. (n.d.). Social economy and inclusive entrepreneurship – social entrepreneurship. https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=952&intPageId=2914&langId=en

European Commission. (2020a). Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe. Publications Office of the European Union.

European Commission. (2020b). Education and training 2020. Highlights from the ET 2020 Working Groups 2018–2020. https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/a1ffa181-8ac4-11eb-b85c-01aa75ed71a1

European Union/Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2016). Policy Brief on Scaling the Impact of Social Enterprises. Policies for social entrepreneurship. https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/53e3ccbd-9a83-11e6-9bca-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

European Union. (2020). Social Enterprises and their Ecosystems in Europe (Comparative Synthesis Report). https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8274&furtherPubs=yes

Garcia-Gonzalez, A., & Ramirez-Montoya, M. S. (2023). Social entrepreneurship competency in higher education: An analysis using mixed methods. Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, 14(1), 91–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/19420676.2020.1823872

Gandhi, T., & Raina, R. (2018). Social entrepreneurship: The need, relevance, facets and constraints. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, 8, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40497-018-0094-6

Guritno, P., D., Suyono, H., & Sunarjo, S. (2019). Competency model of social entrepreneurs. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147–4478), 8(3), 94–110. https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v8i3.256

Hemingway, Ch., A. (2013). Corporate social entrepreneurship. In S. O. Idowu, N. Capaldi, L. Zu, & A. Das Gupta (Eds.), Encyclopedia of corporate social responsibility (pp. 544–551). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28036-8_363

Kim, M. G., Lee, J., Roh, T., & Son, H. (2020). Social entrepreneurship education as an innovation hub for building an entrepreneurial ecosystem: The case of the KAIST social entrepreneurship MBA program. Sustainability, 12(22), Article 9736. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229736

LAS Terminology Commission. (2009). On the understanding and use of the term competence in Latvian. LAS Terminology Commission Decision No.84. Latvijas Vēstnesis, 9(84), 19/01/2010 (in Latvian). https://likumi.lv/ta/id/203798-par-termina-ikompetencei-izpratni-un-lietosanu-latviesu-valoda

Levine, E., & Patrick, S. (2019). What is competency based education? https://aurora-institute.org/wp-content/uploads/what-is-competency-based-education-an-updated-definition-web.pdf

Licite-Kurbe, L., & Sevcuna, L. (2023). Scenarios for the employment of people with disabilities by work integration social enterprises in Latvia. Serbian Journal of Management, 18(1), 133–152. https://doi.org/10.5937/sjm18-43001

Maniam, B., Engel, J., & Subramaniam, G. (2018). Examining the significance and impact of social entrepreneurship. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(4.38), 818–824. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.38.27552

Miller, T., Wesley, C., & Williams, D. (2012). Educating the minds of caring hearts: Comparing the views of practitioners and educators on the importance of social entrepreneurship competencies. Academy of Management Learning & Education, V, 349–352. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2011.0017

Ministry of Welfare of the Republic of Latvia. (2023). Current affairs of social entrepreneurship (December 2022) (in Latvian).

Mitchelmore, S., & Rowley, J. (2010). Entrepreneurial competencies: A literature review and development agenda. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 16(2), 92–111. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552551011026995

McClelland, D. C. (1973). Testing for competence rather than for “intelligence”. American Psychologist, 28(1), 423–447. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034092

OECD. (n.d.). Social Entrepreneurship in Europe – An OECD-European Commission Project. https://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/social-entrepreneurship-oecd-ec.htm

OECD. (2022). Boosting social entrepreneurship and social enterprise development in Slovenia: In-depth policy review. In OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Papers. https://doi.org/10.1787/184f1e07-en

Orhei, L. E, Nandram, S., & Vinke, J. (2015). Social entrepreneurship competence: Evidence from founders of social enterprises in Romania. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business (IJESB), 25(1). https://doi.org/10.1504/IJESB.2015.068780

Prasetyo, P. E., & Kistanti, N. R. (2020). Role of social entrepreneurship in supporting business opportunities and entrepreneurship competitiveness. Open Journal of Business and Management, 8(4), Article 1412. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbm.2020.84090

Rickhoff-Fischer, I., Schank, Ch., & Ortland, A. (2021). Is corporate social entrepreneurship a (so far) missed opportunity for higher education institutions? Evidence from Germany. Sustainability, 13(24), Article 13965. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413965

Rossano, S., Baaken, T., Orazbayeva, B., Baaken, M. C., Kiel, B., & Maas, G. J. P. (2023). Social entrepreneurship and its competences: Implications for higher education. In Research anthology on approaches to social and sustainable entrepreneurship (pp. 783–806). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-7593-5.ch040

Rubio, E. (2016). 4 Essential Skills for Social Entrepreneurs (and how to build them!). https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-essential-skills-social-entrepreneurs-how-build-them-enrique-rubio

Saeima of the Republic of Latvia. (2017). Social Enterprise Law. https://likumi.lv/doc.php?id=294484

Saeima of the Republic of Latvia. (2010). Sustainable Development Strategy Latvia until 2030. https://www.varam.gov.lv/sites/varam/files/content/files/lias_2030_en.pdf

Sannikova, & A., Brante, I. (2018). Development of social entrepreneurship in Latvia. Business, Management and Education, 16(1), 147–159. https://doi.org/10.3846/bme.2018.2198

Sannikova, A., & Titko, J. (2021). Social entrepreneurship and social inequality: A case study of Latvia. In Economic Science for Rural Development Conference Proceedings, 55, 188–195. https://doi.org/10.22616/ESRD.2021.55.019

Sherman, S. (2011). Teaching the key skills of successful social entrepreneurs. Stanford Social Innovation Review. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/teaching_the_key_skills_of_successful_social_entrepreneurs#

Terziev, V., Andreeva, O., Sukhoveeva, A., & Galina, P. (2020). The role of social entrepreneurship in ensuring the social security of the state. International Journal of Economics and Business Administration, VIII(4), 89–827. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3889393

Titko, J., Tambovceva, T., Atstaja, Dz., Lapinskaite, I., Solesvik, M., Svirina, A., & Uzule, K. (2023). Attitude towards sustainable entrepreneurship among students: Pilot study in Latvia and Lithuania. TalTech Journal of European Studies, 13(1)/(37), 107–132. https://doi.org/10.2478/bjes-2023-0006

United Nations. (n.d.). Entrepreneurs for social change. https://sdgs.un.org/partnerships/entrepreneurs-social-change

Vintisa, K. (2011). Competence dictionary. In Creative technologies 10/3/2011. https://nevis.mk.gov.lv/Uploads/CompetenceDictionary.6310fce38bd842a3b5a769030b30042a.pdf

Vázquez-Parra, J. C., García-González, A., & Ramírez-Montoya, M. S. (2021). Social entrepreneurship competency: An approach by discipline and gender. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 13(5), 1357–1373. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-09-2020-0317

Vevere, V., Cerkovskis, E., & Sannikova, A. (2021). Social entrepreneurship intentions among business students in Latvia. European Integration Studies, 15(1), 251–259. https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.1.15.29111

Worsham, E. L., & Dees J. G. (2012). Reflections and insights on teaching social entrepreneurship: An interview with Greg Dees. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 11(3), 442–452. https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2011.0024

Yujuico, E. (2008). Connecting the dots in social entrepreneurship through the capabilities approach. Socio-Economic Review, 6(3), 493–513. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwn003

Yunus, M. (2009). Creating a world without poverty: Social business and the future of capitalism. Global Urban Development, 4(2).