SOCIAL ENTERPRISES IN THE SVERDLOVSK REGION: THE STATE AND PROSPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is important for economic growth, which has a social impact through an entrepreneurial approach, helps stimulate the country's economy, as well as its social structure. Today, social enterprises create jobs, introduce innovative services and products, and contribute to the growth of well-being and the level of education in society.

The relevance of this topic is due to the need to support and develop social enterprises from among SMEs in modern conditions, due to the fact that the degree of development of social entrepreneurship is one of the indicators of the quality of life in society, and its positive dynamics indicates how significant the solution of social problems and the participation of society and authorities at different levels is becoming.

The main idea of this study is to analyze the features of the development of social entrepreneurship in the Sverdlovsk region, the dynamics of indicators, and identify difficulties in implementing state support for social entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this article is to consider the distinctive features and analyze the indicators of social enterprises in the Sverdlovsk region.

This study has several indisputable scientific innovations that distinguish it from similar works. Firstly, the study focuses on a specific territory - the Sverdlovsk region, which allows us to see the unique trends of social enterprises. Secondly, the analysis of indicators characterizing social enterprises in the region was carried out, and factors hindering the development of the sector in the context of worsening social problems were identified.

To achieve this goal, theoretical research methods were used, such as analysis of the legislative framework governing social entrepreneurship, classification of social enterprises and their organizational and legal forms, as well as empirical methods: measurement and comparison of quantitative and qualitative indicators, statistical methods.

The main results. The analysis showed that the development of social enterprises in the Sverdlovsk region has average indicators, while there are opportunities for its further development in the territory.  The social business support program provides information, financial support, and participation in grant competitions. All tools are also available to social enterprises, as well as for ordinary SMEs. The main activities of social enterprises in the region are education, child care, sports and recreation, the areas of social services, medicine, folk crafts, etc. are least represented. Among the factors hindering the development of social enterprises are a lack of financial resources, limited awareness, the need to balance social impact and financial sustainability, as well as the difficulties of scaling social impact. Achieving more significant results is possible by strengthening cooperation between the state, entrepreneurs and investors, expanding the criteria for classifying social enterprises, expanding the legislative framework, as well as taking additional support measures.

It should be noted that this study has limitations. Firstly, there is a time limit. Secondly, the paper does not consider the criteria of efficiency and performance of social enterprises. Future research should pay attention to these aspects and conduct a more detailed analysis of the effectiveness of supporting social enterprises in the region.