POSSIBILITIES OF DEVELOPMENT SOCIAL ENTERPRISES IN LATVIA

Nowadays, seeing the prosperity of people growing and the desire of the public to take social responsibility, there are more and more social enterprises developing, whose purpose of activity is not only making profit but, most importantly, dealing with social problems for the public benefit. The purpose of this study is to examine the experience of social enterprises, to detect problems and to work out propositions for the development social enterprises in Latvia. To reach the aim, a survey and analysis was undertaken, having surveyed 1164 Latvian enterprises carried out in November and December 2013. Results of the research indicate that the development of social enterprises is slow in Latvia because the legal framework is not developed, there is a lack of understanding and knowledge on social entrepreneurship in the public, the financial support of the state and local governments is inadequate, and there is also no sufficient education and training practice for social entrepreneurs. Therefore it is important to develop and implement the action concept of the government, providing several support instruments, informing the society and working on the legislative alignment.