Social Entrepreneurship in Russia: Key Players and Development Potentiality

This article presents an overview of different approaches to the definition of social entrepreneurship and contains the findings of a survey on the process of its development in Russia. Whereas this type of business is institutionalized in the economy of the U.S. and certain European nations, where special laws are developed for it and significant tax benefits are afforded in certain cases, it is in its initial state in Russian society. Its development in the Russian economy will largely depend on the actions taken by the key players in the emerging organizational field and not solely on socio-economic and historical conditions. A series of expert interviews at the first study stage resulted in identification of the key players, in particular, ‘Our Future’ – the foundation for regional social programs that served as the monopolistic source of financial support for social entrepreneurship during the study. To find out what social entrepreneurship model is taking shape in Russia, 186 applications completed by different organizations seeking social entrepreneurship financing support were reviewed. The applications were made during a three year period of the Foundation’s business. The review suggested that the Foundation mostly backs up those social programs capable of becoming independent from external financial sources