DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: CHALLENGE FOR LITHUANIAN RESEARCHERS
In: European Integration Studies, Band 0, Heft 6
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In: European Integration Studies, Band 0, Heft 6
In: European integration studies: research and topicalities, Band 0, Heft 8
ISSN: 2335-8831
Recent years globalization processes, growing competition and pressure in the market rise new challenges for managers and enterprises. New strategies, valued decisions, new ways of thinking are implied in business. But there are some traditional viewpoints to business which creates added value. One of them is entrepreneurship. The phenomenon is known from the times than business was not so much researched as now is. The value and meaning of this phenomenon is important and even growing. Entrepreneurship can be described by the features of its expression. These features in the article are crystallized from theoretical research works on entrepreneurship and the whole of them reflects the modern concept of entrepreneurship in an enterprise nowadays. Development of features of entrepreneurship's expression strongly depends on the economic and society transformations. The features encounter economic, managerial, social cohesion and technological activities in the enterprise. As the theoretical analysis allowed to identify and to ground the features of entrepreneurship's expression in an enterprise, an empirical analysis of the development of features is important and useful in practice. Entrepreneurship is tightly connected with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Expression of entrepreneurship is more intensive in SMEs. Important support for SMEs is structural funding from the European Union (EU). Financial support goes under appropriate priorities, there is often declared that innovative entrepreneurial SMEs have to be supported in the documents. So, possible expression of entrepreneurship and its features is researched in this article in this kind of projects supported by the European Commission (EC) as to clarify how the concept of entrepreneurship is understood by the experts valuating projects and giving funding for the SMEs. The other part of empirical research is based on the Lithuanian enterprises, treated as innovative. Such environment as a science park could give the appropriate conditions to the ...
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Relevance. Organizations' social responsibility in the market is manifested through the quality of the services they provide, consumer information, care for their health, safety and the integration of environmental requirements into the activities of the organizations. Employees are one of the key stakeholders, and their approach is one way of exposing the organization's CSR issues. From the point of view of organizations' economic responsibility, it is important to strive for competitiveness of goods and services, efficient management and economical use of resources (Carden and Boyd, 2011, etc.). Ethical social sphere emphasizes honest cooperation with stakeholders, taking into account public expectations and customer information. Pedersen (2010), Homburg et al. (2013), Segal (2011) discuss topical issues of social responsibility that define an organization's relationship with its stakeholders in pursuit of organizational customer loyalty and trust and socio-economic justice in the community. In the field of environment protection, the integration of environmental protection legislation into the activities of the company, reduction of pollution, improvement of operational activities, continuous monitoring, anticipation and implementation of necessary changes is important (Delmas et al. 2013, Claydon (2009), Valdes-Vasquez (2011), Fleming (2017), Allen (2016), Shin (2015), etc. A survey of CSR in the market was conducted in small and medium-sized enterprises. 175 respondents participated in the research. Research aim. Assess the social responsibility of organizations towards consumers, the environment and the community in terms of employees. Research methods. Analysis of scientific literature, questionnaire survey. Research results and conclusions. Responsibility in the market for the quality of services provided was assessed on the basis of the following statements: at my workplace there is paid great attention to quality of service (production), effort is made to deliver on our promises to our customers, quality of services declared within the organization does not differ from reality, product quality control system exists in the workplace, consumer complaints are being investigated and the findings improve quality, and not only the legislation is used in customer relations, but generally accepted morals are rated only moderately. Responsibility in the market according to consumer information, caring about their health and safety has been assessed by employees to what extent these statements correspond to the reality: organizations provide detailed product information; I enjoy the services and products of my organization; my organization is concerned with the health of consumers when providing services, products; there has been no evidence that the services (products) provided by my workplace have been detrimental to the welfare of consumers and my organization does not manipulate consumer confidence. From the employees' point of view, the investigated organizations have a higher than average level of responsibility. The lack of responsibility is reflected in the fact that employees disagree that organizations do not manipulate consumer confidence. Promoting environmental protection is important in terms of market responsibility.Responsibility in the market is defined by these statements: the organization uses technologies that comply with organic standards; organizes environmental initiatives; uses only tools and technologies that reduce the negative impact on the environment; the organization takes care of the ecologic education of its employees, the organization takes care of all waste to be recycled, the waste is sorted, and green ideas are encouraged financially in the workplace. Having assessed the respondents' attitudes towards meeting environmental requirements, it could be indicated that the surveyed organizations have a medium level of responsibility, while employees indicate that organizations do not financially promote green ideas or contribute to the organization of environmental initiatives. Based on the results obtained there was ascertained higher than average level of social responsibility of organizations in the market, therefore, in the case under review, the activities of organizations in the context of applying social responsibility principles should be improved according to all categories defining social responsibility in the market.
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Relevance. Organizations' social responsibility in the market is manifested through the quality of the services they provide, consumer information, care for their health, safety and the integration of environmental requirements into the activities of the organizations. Employees are one of the key stakeholders, and their approach is one way of exposing the organization's CSR issues. From the point of view of organizations' economic responsibility, it is important to strive for competitiveness of goods and services, efficient management and economical use of resources (Carden and Boyd, 2011, etc.). Ethical social sphere emphasizes honest cooperation with stakeholders, taking into account public expectations and customer information. Pedersen (2010), Homburg et al. (2013), Segal (2011) discuss topical issues of social responsibility that define an organization's relationship with its stakeholders in pursuit of organizational customer loyalty and trust and socio-economic justice in the community. In the field of environment protection, the integration of environmental protection legislation into the activities of the company, reduction of pollution, improvement of operational activities, continuous monitoring, anticipation and implementation of necessary changes is important (Delmas et al. 2013, Claydon (2009), Valdes-Vasquez (2011), Fleming (2017), Allen (2016), Shin (2015), etc. A survey of CSR in the market was conducted in small and medium-sized enterprises. 175 respondents participated in the research. Research aim. Assess the social responsibility of organizations towards consumers, the environment and the community in terms of employees. Research methods. Analysis of scientific literature, questionnaire survey. Research results and conclusions. Responsibility in the market for the quality of services provided was assessed on the basis of the following statements: at my workplace there is paid great attention to quality of service (production), effort is made to deliver on our promises to our customers, quality of services declared within the organization does not differ from reality, product quality control system exists in the workplace, consumer complaints are being investigated and the findings improve quality, and not only the legislation is used in customer relations, but generally accepted morals are rated only moderately. Responsibility in the market according to consumer information, caring about their health and safety has been assessed by employees to what extent these statements correspond to the reality: organizations provide detailed product information; I enjoy the services and products of my organization; my organization is concerned with the health of consumers when providing services, products; there has been no evidence that the services (products) provided by my workplace have been detrimental to the welfare of consumers and my organization does not manipulate consumer confidence. From the employees' point of view, the investigated organizations have a higher than average level of responsibility. The lack of responsibility is reflected in the fact that employees disagree that organizations do not manipulate consumer confidence. Promoting environmental protection is important in terms of market responsibility.Responsibility in the market is defined by these statements: the organization uses technologies that comply with organic standards; organizes environmental initiatives; uses only tools and technologies that reduce the negative impact on the environment; the organization takes care of the ecologic education of its employees, the organization takes care of all waste to be recycled, the waste is sorted, and green ideas are encouraged financially in the workplace. Having assessed the respondents' attitudes towards meeting environmental requirements, it could be indicated that the surveyed organizations have a medium level of responsibility, while employees indicate that organizations do not financially promote green ideas or contribute to the organization of environmental initiatives. Based on the results obtained there was ascertained higher than average level of social responsibility of organizations in the market, therefore, in the case under review, the activities of organizations in the context of applying social responsibility principles should be improved according to all categories defining social responsibility in the market.
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In: European integration studies: research and topicalities, Band 0, Heft 10
ISSN: 2335-8831
In: European integration studies: research and topicalities, Band 0, Heft 11
ISSN: 2335-8831
The paper analyses the peculiarieties of social economy, focusing the scientific attention to social enterprises and their environment in EU and, especially, Lithuania. The research problem of the paper lays upon revealing the situation and development of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in EU and Lithuania, especially emphasizing rural areas and their peculiarities. The aim of the paper is to disclose the role of social economy and the importance of social enterprises in it, especially concentrating on the environment analysis for such business in Lithuanian rural areas. In the research paper, there were analysed social economy context and importance, legal, economic and social environment of social enterprises in Lithuanian rural area, and social enterprises in Lithuania in terms of latest statistical data. Main findings of the fulfilled research are following: social economy remains very important in EU countries, but the exposure of it is quite different in various countries. Lithuania is trying to implement the principals of social economy in the policy of the country. Now the attention is focused on social entrepreneurship and social enterprises as the unused potential for economy boost in the country. Environement analysis of social enterprises, especially focusing on rural areas of Lithuania, revealed that situation is getting better, but there are a lot of things to be improved for successful development of social business in the country. The improvement should start from public institutions and their focused activity to improve conditions for social enterprises. Otherwise, intentions from business actors are very important also. The further guidance of this research could lead to deeper analysis of social entrepreneurs' intentions due to starting up social business gathering primary data from the potential and existing entrepreneurs. Rural areas remain as unexplored area for social business creation, especially when additional financial support is planned for them.
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The paper analyses the peculiarieties of social economy, focusing the scientific attention to social enterprises and their environment in EU and, especially, Lithuania. The research problem of the paper lays upon revealing the situation and development of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in EU and Lithuania, especially emphasizing rural areas and their peculiarities. The aim of the paper is to disclose the role of social economy and the importance of social enterprises in it, especially concentrating on the environment analysis for such business in Lithuanian rural areas. In the research paper, there were analysed social economy context and importance, legal, economic and social environment of social enterprises in Lithuanian rural area, and social enterprises in Lithuania in terms of latest statistical data. Main findings of the fulfilled research are following: social economy remains very important in EU countries, but the exposure of it is quite different in various countries. Lithuania is trying to implement the principals of social economy in the policy of the country. Now the attention is focused on social entrepreneurship and social enterprises as the unused potential for economy boost in the country. Environement analysis of social enterprises, especially focusing on rural areas of Lithuania, revealed that situation is getting better, but there are a lot of things to be improved for successful development of social business in the country. The improvement should start from public institutions and their focused activity to improve conditions for social enterprises. Otherwise, intentions from business actors are very important also. The further guidance of this research could lead to deeper analysis of social entrepreneurs' intentions due to starting up social business gathering primary data from the potential and existing entrepreneurs. Rural areas remain as unexplored area for social business creation, especially when additional financial support is planned for them.DOI: ...
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