European Municipalities for Social Entrepreneurship – CBS reseach project

Copenhagen Business School (CBS) is currently conducting a large reseach project, where municipalities and social entrepreneurs across Europe asked about posibillities and challanges in regard to the current framework for businesses, that are taking a social responsabillity.

CBS esearch suggests that municipalities, communes and cities are one of the key actors in enabling and supporting social entrepreneurship at a local level. They help social entrepreneurs to raise awareness about social issues, to acquire resources, and to implement joint programs.

In order to research this issue in more depth, CBS is now aiming to identify interested actors in municipalities across Europe who would be willing to share their experiences in social entrepreneurship as well as the perceived road blocks to go forward.
The result of this project will be a brief report highlighting best practices and sharing knowledge about effective ways through which municipalities can leverage social entrepreneurship in their local environments.
In March 2018, CBS will organize a conference on social entrepreneurship and impact investing to share the first insights and to foster future collaboration.

If you know municipality or commune representatives in Denmark or other European municipalities interested to join the project, please forward them this newsletter. One can indicate interest via the following brief online form:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MunicipalitiesForSocialEntrepreneurship

Social enterprises tend to be characterized by their social purpose, a significant commercial activity, inclusive governance, and social management of their profits. They often pursue a social or an employment purpose, such as creating and integrating jobs for disabled people (social inclusion), or have a health, cultural or environmental purpose.
The challenges social enterprises face are little visibility and general awareness of the concept, access to finance and funding, acquiring business competences, and measuring and communicating their social impact effectively. Municipalities can play an important role in overcoming these challenges.
Looking forward, one of the main objectives is to create a longitudinal database that would allow CBS to study the effect municipalities can have on social entrepreneurship in their local environment. This will hopefully help CBS identify effective measures municipalities can take.

The project is carried out by the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) as part of CBS´s 100-year anniversary celebration. The CBS research initiative is open to suggestions from interested stakeholders. We welcome your comments and feedback.

Contact person:

Felix Wittke fwi.msc@cbs.dk 

You can see the presentation flyer for the project here