Installation Project for REsearch about Social ENTrepreneurship

The main goal of iPRESENT (Installation Project for REsearch about Social ENTrepreneurship) project is to research capacities and potentials of social entrepreneurship as an environmentally friendly and socially responsible business model in Croatia. Social Entrepreneurship is one of the leading and growing phenomena, it has outcomes in social, economic and environmental fields, and as such is suitable and studious for scientific research. This is especially the case in a country such as Croatia, with longstanding economic crisis, rise of unemployment; decrease of social rights and trust, but at the same time quite a wealth of natural resources and tradition in cooperative business models. The project has a specific objective to initiate and secure long term scientific base and data for research on social entrepreneurship in Croatia; to set up a relevant and up to date published materials about social entrepreneurship open to science community and public; to test the level of 3BL (Triple bottom line) in social enterprises in Croatia; and to prepare guidelines and “advice book” for potential social entrepreneurs and recommendations for important and interested stakeholders. Through the three years of project duration, an already experienced scientist and researchers with young colleagues will explore and define the concept of social entrepreneurship, compare and elaborate EU perspectives and conditions regarding the subject of the project, but also place considerable emphasis on methodological approach that should provide us with reliable and operable scientific data. The project consists of a balanced and well suited mix of qualitative and quantitative scientific methods depending on applicability and specific needs within the project. It is worth mentioning that this is the first time in Croatia that the scientific community recognised social entrepreneurship as a valuable subject for long-term analytical work and research.