FROM TRADITIONAL BUSINESS TO SOCIAL ONE: NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR ENTREPRENEURS IN RURAL AREAS

In many EU countries economic and social development stagnates. The reasons are various and depends on the country. Some countries are still leaders (Germany, Great Britain, France), but depending on political events and complicated issues in each of them common EU internal market is kept as rather passive and not expanding in terms of consumption and investments. Especially it is related to countries suffering their internal business problems. The research problem of this paper is related to the issues how to provide some innovative solutions to traditional enterprises in Lithuania and Poland for their prosperous development. The aim of the paper is to analyse the situation and problems of traditional business in rural areas of Lithuania and Poland and propose development possibilities applying social initiatives and becoming social enterprises. The research object of the paper is traditional and social enterprises in rural areas. The research discloses that in Lithuania and Poland the situation in rural areas has a lot of similarities in terms of development and problems. Social entrepreneurship in both countries is kept as possibility but still problems and specificity exist in the countries.