Social Entrepreneurship in Crisis Situations

Adoption of global economy principles might lead to social disaster situations as happened in Former Soviet Union (FSU) in the late 1980-ies. In light of the scale of this crisis following the collapse of the social and medical safety net during the fall of communism, and the absence of a local welfare model - the role of the outside entrepreneur as a change agent became critical. There was an urgent need to develop support systems for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and the disabled. The paper deals with social entrepreneurship in a crisis situation and studies the actions that led to the establishment of an innovative network of social service community centers in FSU. In line with contemporary approaches, we adopt a multidimensional perspective and describe and discuss three levels of factors and the interplay between them: a) the social-cultural environment within which the innovation developed, b) characteristics of the organization that provided the framework, drive, and opportunity for the entrepreneur and its field group representatives c) processes and activities that shaped the development of the end product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]