Theoretical aspects of social entrepreneurship in the context of environmentalism

Abstract

As the fight against climate change grows, the world is increasingly focusing on developing social entrepreneurship to address environmental challenges. By creating not only legislation and support programmes, Latvia is also involved in the development of social entrepreneurship, following the priorities of social entrepreneurship set out in the Europe 2030 and Latvia 2030 strategies. The research aim is to examine the theoretical role of preserving and protecting the environment by means of social entrepreneurship. To achieve the aim, specific research tasks were set: 1) to review the relevant scientific literature and make a comparison of different definitions of social entrepreneurship; 2) to define the factors affecting environmental help and to examine how social entrepreneurship takes part in improving these factors; 3) to identify which European Union Member States most actively use social entrepreneurship in solving environmental problems. The research showed, given that social entrepreneurship is a relatively new concept, its long-term concept is unclear, and the ambiguous definition hinders the development of common sets of measures. Given that the criteria for setting up a European social enterprise vary, most EU Member States focus on engaging target groups in social entrepreneurship, while only 8 EU Member States view environmental protection as an essential component of social entrepreneurship.