Cooperative Societies and Labour Companies as architects of entrepreneurship. Comparative analysis of the entrepreneurial profile of both types of company in the context of Andalusia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the characteristics and problems of the two types of social economy company that have shown the greatest growth in recent years –cooperatives and labour companies– as motors of entrepreneurship in Andalusia. Although they have been studied from various perspectives, no in-depth studies analysing entrepreneurs were found in the literature, at least as far as the Andalusian Autonomous Community is concerned. A comparative analysis was therefore carried out to establish the potential advantages and disadvantages of the two company types and an empirical study was conducted to examine the particular personal, social and economic traits of entrepreneurs who have decided to form a company of one of these types, trying to establish what might be termed the profile of the typical social economy entrepreneur in Andalusia.