Paths to the Development of Social Entrepreneurship in Russia and Central Asian Countries: Standardization Versus De-regulation

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to determine the optimal path of development of social entrepreneurship in Russia and Central Asian countries by performing a scenario analysis of the development of social entrepreneurship and analyzing the opinions of interested parties regarding the outcome of social entrepreneurship in Russia and Central Asian states. The authors’ recommendations for the practical implementation of the optimal path of social entrepreneurship development are described.

The scenario analysis of statistical data showed that the existing practice of standardization of social companies’ activities hinders their executing their functions on raising the quality of life. With the expansion of freedom of social entrepreneurship, the population’s quality of life grows; on the contrary, the increase of state regulation leads to its reduction. The findings show that social entrepreneurship in Russia and Central Asian countries is interested in private investments and social companies’ employees. That is why the representatives of these categories of concerned parties support de-regulation. Consumers of social goods and services are interested in obtaining them freely and thus prefer standardization.

This chapter presents a new direction of social entrepreneurship analysis – by determining the correlation between economic freedom and quality of life. This opens an opportunity for thorough social entrepreneurship research based on authentic and objective quantitative (statistical) data. The obtained conclusions and offered recommendations allow using the mechanism of public–private entrepreneurship for turning social entrepreneurship into something more valuable and useful – a tool for increasing the quality of the population’s life.

Citation

Popkova, E.G. and Sergi, B.S. (2021), "Paths to the Development of Social Entrepreneurship in Russia and Central Asian Countries: Standardization Versus De-regulation", Sergi, B.S., Scanlon, C.C. and Heine, L.R.I. (Ed.) Entrepreneurship for Social Change (Lab for Entrepreneurship and Development), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 161-177. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-210-220211006