Research Analysis: Social Enterprise

Section 1. Objectives

Client: Solidarity Tracks NGO

Research conducted: August 2026

Analys: Content Analyse

Before investing time and resources in creating visual and social media content about social enterprises, a solid and reliable database had to be established. The main objective was to research and structure how social enterprises operate, their key characteristics, legal and organisational forms, the existing approaches for their creation and operation within the European Union, as well as successful examples in various European countries. The intention was for the resulting content to serve as a basis for future visual materials, animations, and social media communication formats.

Technical Overview

To prepare this content, analyses were first conducted using data from YouTube, Facebook and Google Trends. If you'd like to review these analyses, you can scroll directly to the end of the page. Based on comments gathered from YouTube and other social media platforms, artificial intelligence tools such as Gemini and Claude were used to User story analyses were conducted using AI tools such as Gemini and Claude, revealing users' actual pain points. Google Trends data was then used to further substantiate the findings.

Section 2. Content

Social Enterprise is an organisation with a social objective, but which uses entrepreneurial and economic activity to achieve that objective..

I would like to state my personal position in a brief section. Below, you will be introduced to various types of classifications, models and criteria. When looking at the bigger picture, every author and researcher quoted and mentioned below repeatedly reiterates the same idea in their works. When discussing business, it is utterly impossible to confine it within any framework or to declare any one model ideal. The concept of “Business”, as an element of “Liberal economics”, historically thrives and evolves most freely in a liberal environment.

The concept of the social enterprise began to take shape in Europe, and indeed the world, from the mid-1990s. Some sources indicate that similar terminology and activities were also present in the US during the 1980s. And to this day, it has taken on many formats that are both contradictory and similar. As a result, one of the major challenges of our time is that the distinctions between a 'social enterprise', 'social entrepreneur', 'charity' and a 'standard business model' are still being conflated. It should be noted that the “user story”s in the analysis also confirm this fact. The entire content has been built on the basis of end users' comments and feedback, and there you can get to know those end users' opinions more closely.

To gain a closer understanding of Social Enterprise, I will compare three different approaches. As this is a highly contentious and complex topic, I will substantiate each of my points with academic sources that are either closely related or identical. You can find the links to the sources at the end of the sessions. Please note that this is not an academic citation, I am simply providing the source.

Social Entrepreneurship

This concept can encompass the other two concepts. Therefore, the other two can always be considered Social Enterneurship, but Social Entrepreneurschip may not always apply to the next two sections.

What is the Social Entrepreneuship? A process, an activity, an approach. Not a type of organisation.

This is a broad umbrella, all kinds of social-corporate activities can fall under it. In short, the application of entrepreneurial methods to the solution of social problems. A person can be a social entrepreneur and carry out this activity within an NGO, a government body, an ordinary company, or by creating a completely new organisation.

Format: A person / entrepreneur and Process

Possible source:

Dees, J. G. (1998). The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. Stanford University.

Social Enterprise

This concept also forms the basis of our content. More detailed information about this will follow below.

What is the Social Enterprise ? Type of organisation. A specific form of structure.

This refers to an entity with a specific legal structure that generates income through market activity (i.e. by selling goods or services) and directs this income towards a social purpose. It is primarily a European term, more commonly used in Italy, the UK, and France. A full distribution of profits (asset lock) is characteristic, but some models allow for limited profit sharing, which varies from country to country.

Format: Framework / Structure

Possible soruce:

The Human Economy, a Citizen's Guide (pp.284 -292): Hart K., Laville J.L., Cattani C

Social Business

It is a format expressed with very specific and the most acute boundaries. The format itself was published in 2010 by Mohammad Yunus.

What is the Social Business? This model tackles a core problem, which is invariably a social one. To address this problem, a business activity is launched. While investment is freely sought, financial support from donors, such as grants, is not accepted.

• It is not harmless; it is commercially justified.
• It does not pay dividends, investors can only get their initial capital back, not any more.
• It does not receive grants and operates entirely on income from the market.
• All profits are reinvested in the mission.

In other words, the funds remaining after all costs, liabilities and other such payments have been made are used solely for reinvestment. With this version, for example, it is possible to produce and sell a product for everyday use at a very minimal price.

Format: Business / Financial structure

Source:

Yunus, M., Moingeon, B., & Lehmann-Ortega, L. (2010). Building Social Business Models:

Social Enterprise

Some academic streams have published research on Social Enterprise. I would like to talk about the 9 criteria in 3 sections, published by EMES, which are truly very well-known. However, the research itself clearly states that these criteria are not absolute, meaning it is possible to find a social enterprise that lacks one, two, or perhaps even all of them. As I mentioned at the outset, the core of the matter is very liberal. However, based on projects and academic researchs to date, it is reasonable to consider the following nine criteria as fundamental.

1. Nine criterium from EMES (Europian Research Network )

A. Economic & entrepreneurial dimension

1. Continuous production of goods/services

The enterprise must continuously produce goods and/or provide services. In other words, it is not just a one-off project or a charitable activity, but a genuine economic activity

2. Significant level of economic risk-taking

An enterprise carries a certain economic risk: its income is not entirely guaranteed and its continued operation depends to some extent on market activity, sales and its own ability to generate resources.

3. Minimum level of paid work

The operation is not solely volunteer-based; there is a certain level of paid workforce. This distinguishes it from a purely volunteer-based association.

B. Social dimension

4. Explicit aim to benefit the community

The organisation must have a clearly defined social objective: for example, to tackle unemployment, poverty, social exclusion, education or environmental problems.

5. Initiative launched by a group of citizens

Behind the initiative is a collective civic effort. It is not, therefore, formed as a commercial venture by an investor who solely owns the capital.

6. Limited distribution of benefits/profits

A social enterprise can make money and generate a profit, just like a normal business. The difference is that the profit is not mainly used to reward the owners. Instead, a significant part of it is put back into the organisation to support its social mission and create greater social impact.

C. Governance / participatory dimension

7. High degree of autonomy

The organisation is not under the direct control of the state, a donor or any other body; it makes its own management and strategic decisions with relative independence.

8. Decision-making power not based on capital ownership

Decision-making power is not simply determined by the principle of "who has put in more money?". This is the democratic governance aspect of the social enterprise.

9. Participatory dynamic involving stakeholders

Various stakeholders affected by the organisation's activities, such as employees, users, and community members, are involved in the management and decision-making process in some form.

2. Management

In standard companies, holding a larger share of investment confers greater decision-making rights (of course, as with any matter, this one is not set in stone in the business sphere; alternative formats are very welcome). For a social enterprise, however, the issue is somewhat more definitive. Here, democratic governance is to be expected. So, if you have an investment in or a management role in a social enterprise, that doesn't mean you have the power to make decisions on your own. Here, great value is placed on everyone having a say in the management structure. Even stakeholders, that is to say the people who have a stake in the social problem and use this social enterprise to solve it, or to put it more bluntly, the 'customers', are also expected to participate in this governance.

3. Earning income

In this case, a social enterprise is completely autonomous. As it is a business activity, its primary source of income is naturally from sales. However, it is also possible to generate income from sources such as grants from public donors, capital support from private individuals, investment support from social investors, crowdfunding, the voluntary labour of individuals from the social sphere, and so on. In fact, this list is endless and is entirely dependent on the creativity of the social enterprise itself. It is possible to generate income from various sources through creative approaches.

4. Stakeholder

This perception is very important for a Social Enterprise, because the primary measure of its performance is the value that can be delivered to “Stakeholders”.

So, who are the stakeholders? In short, anyone who is positively affected by the organisation's activities. For example customers make a more successful purchase and gain value by buying this product or service, investors get their capital back and are considered to have gained value, employees are considered to have gained value from this activity as they receive a salary, the social environment benefits in economic or other terms from this activity and gains value, the government gains value as a social problem is solved, volunteers gain value from developing themselves through this activity. Other types of stakeholders are also possible, of course this depends on the activity of the social enterprise.

5. Profit and its distribution

A social enterprise can make a profit. Here, the discussion is about the profit that can be directly earned by the founders or owners. However, this profit should not be a large portion of the operating income. For example, if an operating income of 100,000 is generated, a large part of it, say 80,000, should be used for reinvestment, while the remainder should be taken as profit. All measurements and figures here are for illustrative purposes and will, of course, vary depending on the activity and the project.

6. Legal structure

This issue does not currently have a formal format. The reason is that a Social Enterprise is recognised not as a legal format, but as a characteristic.

For example:

• Cooperative → It is an organisation where a group of people make decisions by consensus and everyone has a stake; moreover, the profits are distributed fairly among the members.
• Association → It is an organisation created to fulfil a specific social purpose, not to make a profit, and which does not distribute its earnings among its members.
• Foundation → An organisation that has property and money permanently endowed for a specific charitable purpose (for example, education or healthcare), and which spends those funds solely on that purpose.
• Company → It is the most favourable entity for making quick decisions, attracting investment and being agile in the market, but the main focus here is on making a profit.
• Social enterprise status → merely and simply adds social demands to the existing legal form

It is possible to obtain very rich information about legal norms from the OECD platform. For example, you can familiarise yourself with the legal regulations of the "KOINSEP - Κοινωνική Συνεταιριστική Επιχείρηση (Social Cooperative Enterprise) Greece Law 4430/2016" in Greece, and of course, with information about other countries as well. In addition to all this, consulting a lawyer can help you avoid many bureaucratic

7. How can a Social Enterprise be set up?

1. Identification of Needs and Problem

As with any business activity, we must first identify a specific need, which has certain barriers to its fulfilment, thereby creating the 'PROBLEM'. We are selling our initiative, our business, as the solution to this problem.

For example:

Low-income families in our city struggle to afford premium, delicious sweets. They have a need to taste and experience special flavours, but a barrier of cost stands in their way, creating a problem. Let's build our initiative upon this.

2. Preparation of the business plan and structure

For this activity, we calculate everything we need, evaluate the opportunities, choose our business model, assemble the team members we need, and carry out all our preliminary analyses. In short, we write our initial, formal business plan.

For example:

Name of Project : Eat-It-Easy

Business Model : We're going to create an application where we'll offer consumers products from manufacturers at a low price. These are items that were damaged during production, are simply unsuitable for sale visually, but are of completely premium quality.

Team : Sokrates, Diogenes, Archimed, Plato

SWOT : ..............

..............

You can find hundreds of different business plan examples on the internet.

3. Choosing a legal form

As mentioned above, the legal regulations for each country are very different. For this reason, you can research on the platform we mentioned, or for a more professional approach, it is recommended that you seek legal assistance.

For example :

As we live in Greece, we are creating a project based on the KOINSEP standard.

4. The determination stage

This stage is carried out differently for each country. However, it can generally be said that for every country, there are specific platforms and e-services to ensure the process is swift and transparent. Therefore, the legal and registration stage is by no means as daunting as it might seem.

5. Financing

At this stage, the opportunities for Europe are plentiful. You can find crowdfunding, seek support from the existing local community, or obtain financial backing from the investment sources I will list below, which have been created specifically for this sector.

1. European Social Fund Plus (ESF+)

   It is an EU fund primarily focused on support in the areas of employment, social inclusion, education and skills.

   european-social-fund-plus.ec.europa.eu

2. InvestEU

   It has a very different model; it is advisable to familiarise yourself with it closely. In short, it also provides support for assessing and developing your project's investability.

   investeu.europa.eu

3. EVPA European Venture Philanthropy Association

   Alongside financial investments, you can find professional mentoring and all kinds of support for your business.

   impacteurope.net

For example :

We don't believe we need significant financial backing. For that reason, we code our application ourselves and meet with manufacturers individually. As our model is highly beneficial to them anyway, we can easily reach an agreement. In the initial stage, we don't need an office as we can operate remotely. For branding and PR, we get support from our community.

8. Some examples of Social Enterprise.

Wise Greece

Link: wisegreece.com

Founder: Melina Taprantzi

Location: Greece (operating from Athens)

Short Description:

A pioneer in social enterprise with a dual mission: to support small Greek farmers and food producers, whilst also delivering food to people on the brink of bankruptcy.

The Restart Project

Link : therestartproject.org

Founder: Janet Gunter və Ugo Vallauri

Location: London, United Kingdomondon

Short Description:

It is a social enterprise founded on the belief that every product can be ä repaired and that repairs should be accessible to everyone. It helps people repair their broken devices , from tablets to toasters by learning from one another at community events.

Data research process

Youtube Comment Analyse

Methodological Note (important):

 This analysis was conducted on 342 unique, topic-relevant comments. These comments were collected via YouTube's search API using both Greece (regionCode=GR) and Greek language (relevanceLanguage=el) parameters, testing various phrase combinations and video categories (Nonprofits & Activism, News & Politics, Education). However, none of these attempts yielded Greek-language, topic-relevant comments in analyzable volume either no matching videos were found, or the found videos had their comment sections disabled. Therefore, the final corpus is global, predominantly English (and partially Bengali) language content, not specific to Greece. This report consequently does not contain a "Greece context" section; instead, the global patterns found are presented.

Data source:

 Comment sections of 6 YouTube videos (primarily: Muhammad Yunus's TED talks/lectures, Amber Melanie Smith's "Change Maker Café" channel, Marquis Cabrera's BIB methodology talk, HBS's social enterprise lecture, and several smaller channels).

The vast majority of comments (~70%) are personal expressions of gratitude and admiration directed at specific individuals (primarily Muhammad Yunus) or specific content creators (Amber Melanie Smith, Marquis Cabrera), rather than deep discussions about the "social enterprise" concept itself.

All of these results were taken into account when writing the content.

Google Trands Analzse

Explore the search statistics for 5 keywords on Google over the last 12 months. Please note that this is a relative statistic on a 100-point scale, the graph does not answer the question of the exact number of times a term has been searched for, but rather provides a relative coefficient based on the total searches for each term within this category. In other words, it is an assessment on a scale of 0 to 100 of how many times each keyword is searched for on the Google Search engine each month.

KeyWords:

1. επιχείρηση >> business
2. κοινωνική επιχείρηση >> social enterprise
3. κοινωνική επιχειρηματικότητα >> social entrepreneurship
4. κοινωνικός επιχειρηματίας >> social entrepreneur
5. κοινωνική και αλληλέγγυα οικονομία >> social and solidarity-based economy

A brief analysis shows that searches for "social enterprise" have appeared only in two different months over the course of the year, and even then in very small numbers. Searches for the term "social and solidarity-based economy" experienced an anormal sharp increase on 30 November last year. The term "social entrepreneur" has not been searched for by any user on Google at all. The keyword "business", however, is a relevant term that is consistently searched for by users.

Given how relevant the keyword 'business' is, let's look at the statistics for another feature that Google provides. Let's look at a comparison with the other keywords and topics that users searching for 'business' search for the most.

KeyWords:

1. επιχείρηση >> business
2. ατομική επιχείρηση >> sole trader
3. θεσεισ εργασιασ >> job vacancies

The result clearly shows that the vast majority of users searching with the keyword "business" have also searched for "job vacancies".