Social Enterprise in Hungary

Fekete, Éva G.; Hubai, László; Kiss, Julianna; Mihály, Melinda

doi:10.4324/9780429324529-7

Cited by 8 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…The social enterprise sector is an emerging organisational field in Hungary. The concept has only become well-known in recent years, and there is no uniform definition, separate legal form or specific law yet (G. Fekete et al, 2017a;Kiss, 2020). Still, social enterprises connect to certain existing traditions with more established institutional backgrounds, primarily civil society and the third sector, cooperatives and socially oriented for-profit enterprises (European Commission, 2019a).…”

Section: Literature Review: the Context In Hungarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Hungary, similarly to other CEE countries, the concept of social enterprise, which was not widespread for a long time, has been met with increasing interest in recent years. More and more public and private actors are now targeting the SE field, and the sector's development has intensified by using EU funds (G. Fekete et al, 2017a;European Commission, 2015;European Commission, 2019a). At the same time, following EU priorities, state policy has continued to look at social enterprises as vehicles for work integration whilst ignoring other possible roles in welfare services.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interaction between social enterprises and key actors shaping the field: experiences from the social and health sectors in Hungary

Kiss

Krátki

Deme

2021

SEJ

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Purpose In Hungary, as in other Central and Eastern European countries, the concept of social enterprise (SE) has attracted increased attention in recent years, with certain key actors shaping the organisational field. This growing interest is largely because of the availability of European Union funds focussing on the work integration of disadvantaged groups but ignoring other possible roles of SEs. This study aims to consider a seldom examined and underfunded area: SEs’ institutional environment and organisational activities in the social and health sectors. Design/methodology/approach Based on neoinstitutional theory, the paper uses desk research and qualitative case studies. It presents the experiences of SEs providing social and health services for specific disadvantaged groups. Findings This paper identified the key actors influencing the everyday operation of SEs and examined their connections, interactions and partnerships. Based on the findings, SEs primarily depend on the central state, public social and health institutions and local governments. At the same time, their connections with private customers, networks, development and support organisations, third sector organisations and for-profit enterprises are less significant. The key actors have a relevant impact on the legal form, main activities and the financial and human resources of SEs. SEs, however, have little influence on their institutional environment. Originality/value The paper contributes to understanding the opportunities and barriers of SEs in Hungary and, more generally, in Central and Eastern Europe, especially regarding their place in social and health services.

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Section: Literature Review: the Context In Hungarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction between social enterprises and key actors shaping the field: experiences from the social and health sectors in Hungary

Kiss

Krátki

Deme

2021

SEJ

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“…(G. Fekete et al, 2014a) In Hungary, many factors hindering the development of social enterprises can be identified. The lack of a widely accepted definition is a problem; ignorance of the concept; lack of uniform legislation or long-term strategy; dependence on external, mainly public funding, its unpredictability, bureaucracy, inflexibility and scarcity; low purchasing power of potential consumers, insufficient markets, especially in disadvantaged regions; and the lack of entrepreneurial and leadership skills of social entrepreneurs (G. Fekete et al, 2017).…”

Section: Social Enterprises In Hungarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Organizations in the third sector are extremely diverse: the solidarity economy, which brings together social enterprises and economically active non-profit organizations, and the community economy, which includes charitable organizations. (G. Fekete, 2017) The solidarity economy seeks to change the entire social and economic system and strengthens the various paradigms of development based on the principles of the solidarity economy (Kawano et al, 2010). No help is expected from the primary economy (neither from the market sector nor from budget organizations forced to lay off staff) to reduce long-term unemployment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leadership Needs in the Hungarian Social Cooperatives. Results of a Survey

Bozsik¹

2020

Proceedings of ‏The 3rd International Conference on Research in Social Sciences

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The social cooperatives have a very important function in a peripheral area, they can create jobs for unemployed or disabled people in order to solve the unemployment problem in this area. Of course they can create with the necessary flexibility and innovation skills for rural areas and help to maintain the social peace to provide work with the less competitive part of the rural population (Bartha & Bereczk, 2018). However, the management of this enterprises faces several dilemmas how can build up an effective control system of a social enterprises in Central-Europe. Our research group has a long-term research project to help the social cooperative management in the daily operation based on a well-suited Balanced Scorecard Model to the specific needs of these organisation. A questionnaire survey has been made asking the social cooperative managers about the administration and management problems of their enterprises. According to our survey, the major problem of social cooperative is the quality of available labour force. So, the Human Resource management and how its tools can be effectively adapted to the social cooperatives has got a vital importance. The future aim of our research program is to develop a report system and a ratio analysis tool to help the work of social cooperative managers.

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“…As a consequence of benefitting from the support for the development of the social economy in Hungary, a number of local actors identify themselves as social entrepreneurs 5 , and there is growing interest in the field both from practitioners and researchers (G. Fekete et al,. 2017a;G. Fekete et al, 2017b).…”

Section: The Social and Solidarity Economy In Hungarymentioning

confidence: 99%

An Ecological Economics Inquiry into the Social and Solidarity Economy - Insights from an Action Research

Lazányi¹

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The research aims to link the social and solidarity economy (SSE) with the critical ecological discourse. The practice- and movement-based theory of SSE promotes a systemic change, social transformation toward an environmentally and socially just future through resisting and building alternatives to the prevailing economic system, the market economy. The research gap which has been identify during literature review reveals that, from a radical ecological perspective the SSE practices have been poorly explored. To fill this research gap, based on the interdisciplinary approach of ecologic economics, I critically review ‘How the ecological aspects can theoretically and practically be included in the SSE?’ – which is the research question of the research. The conceptual framework of the research is based on the radical sustainability approach following the pre-analytical vision of ecological economics which builds on the strong hierarchy between the economic, social and natural domain. The implications of the radical sustainability on SSE initiatives was explored through the operation of the Cargonomia collective, in Hungary, Budapest during an action research. Action research allows to explore social phenomena through democratic knowledge creation, participation and intervention into lives of communities, organizations or individuals. During the presented action research, five members of the Cargonomia collective engaged themselves between 2016 and 2018 to deepen understanding about the operation of the organization while improve its performance and conceptualize the lived experience through theoretical-analytical concepts which contributes to scientific knowledge creation. The empirical results of the action research reveal how ecological aspects can be included in the SSE theoretically and practically, which are the following: 1. Respecting certain environmental principles SSE initiatives can follow certain environmental principles to comply with the radical sustainability approach. Such environmental aspects which can be applied by SSE initiatives are related to reducing energy and resource consumption, downsizing material consumption, usage of viable technologies, localization and the personal behaviour of the members. 2. Dealing with contradictions The empirical research revealed that an alternative initiative committed to radical sustainability faces many contradictions in addition to the potential achievements. Both achievements and failures can contribute to learn and enhance sustainability if they reflected upon. The strategies of the Cargonomia collective (exploring viable alternatives, accepting compromises and rejecting activities) can serve as guides for further exploring and implementing coping strategies. The ability to critically reflect on analytical-conceptual issues (such as on the complex question of sustainability) through daily activities of an organization can be supported by action research methodology as presented through the empirical case. Nevertheless, the empirical results reveal that sustainability is not an achievement at a point in time, but rather a journey over time which requires continuous negotiation, learning, reflecting, evaluating and adapting 3. Applying an organizational structure which allows to prioritize environmental and social values over financial gains The prioritization of environmental principles becomes possible through the organizational structure of alternative organizations. The empirical research highlighted three of the aspects of the organizational structure which enables SSE initiatives to follow the radical approach to sustainability, which are (i) democratic governance accompanied by critical-self-reflective discussion and debates, (ii) staying small and (iii) applying a plural economic model which enables to create a balance between different resources building on reciprocal relations, redistribution, market exchange and the combination of these. 4. Redefining the meaning of work The empirical results demonstrated the potential of SSE initiatives to redefine the meaning of work. Work in the empirical case is not primarily marked by monetary income, but by the value which is created for the local community, by joy and by meaningful activities. The diversity of provisioning, reciprocal relations which describe the participation in SSE initiatives, can be conceptualized as the decommodification of work. The implications of decommodifying work in relation to sustainability is that, it can shape social imaginaries and decouple well-being from material consumption.

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Social Enterprise in Hungary

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

Interaction between social enterprises and key actors shaping the field: experiences from the social and health sectors in Hungary

Interaction between social enterprises and key actors shaping the field: experiences from the social and health sectors in Hungary

Leadership Needs in the Hungarian Social Cooperatives. Results of a Survey

An Ecological Economics Inquiry into the Social and Solidarity Economy - Insights from an Action Research

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