Social Entrepreneurship and Cross-Sectoral Partnerships in CEE Countries

Abstract

Recent financial scandals and the ongoing global financial crisis not only cast dark clouds on the traditional paradigm of Western style capitalism but also call for entrepreneurs which regard economic activity and corporate social responsibility as mutually inclusive (anonymous, 2011). Some authors (i.e. Jamrozy, 2007) even suggest a corporate aim to be orientated towards the improvement of quality of life for all. These developments clearly point to a new mindset and school of entrepreneurs and an increased social importance (Thompson, 1999) of entrepreneurs reflected in the concept of social entrepreneurship which is still in its infancy stage. Against the background of the still ongoing transition of Central and Eastern European countries from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, this contribution suggests a synthesis and internal consistency between the concepts of cross-sectoral partnerships, social entrepreneurship and management and marketing as well as traditional entrepreneurship related concepts. The problems in CEE countries are illustrated by apparent gaps (Kaufmann, Davies and Schmidt, 1994) and in ethnic or societal conflicts, for example, in the Balkan or Caucasus region (Kaufmann, Zagorac and Sanchez, 2008). These multifaceted problems require the involvement of other than nongovernmental organizations due to the coherence of political, social and economic problems. Regarding previous research in Eastern Europe in this context, Kaufmann, Davies and Schmidt (1994) suggested resorting to ‘synergy experience’ for behavioral change. Unfortunately, there is a gap between the calls of the Millennium Declaration for the cooperation between the public sector, private and civil sector aiming to reduce the poverty levels in the world (Friedrich and Gale, 2004) and the concept of Global Governance for a cross-sectoral co-operation of politics, economy, science, civil society/NGOs and media for the development of a world order (Gruber, 2003) and its actual implementation on a local, regional and national level.

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