Social Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Upper-Middle-Income Countries: Social Policy and Sustainable Economic Development Implications

Abstract

This study aims to explore how a region’s degree of vulnerability influences the perceived level of support toward social entrepreneurship from a social entrepreneurial ecosystem perspective. The study of social entrepreneurial ecosystems (SEEs) constitutes a promising area for its potential to support high-impact entrepreneurs, but they are currently underexplored in upper-middle-income countries. This study also combines a macro-level (countries) and a meso-level (vulnerability regions) analysis to better understand how national policies may affect the perceptions of different ‘regions’ and, consequently, sustainable economic development. This study follows principal component analysis and non-parametric statistics to compare the means of the countries and the levels of regions’ vulnerabilities based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s regional data from Chilean (n = 276) and Mexican (n = 188) experts. At the macro level, the results show that experts in Chile have a better perception of social policies for social entrepreneurship than their counterparts in Mexico. At the meso-level, experts in high-vulnerability regions have a better perception of the social ecosystem dynamism than those in the low-vulnerability regions. The results contribute to the urgent dialogue to set up strategies that allow upper-middle-income countries and their regions to achieve greater impact and sustainability.