INSTITUTIONALIZING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A PATH TO HOLISTIC SUSTAINABILITY

Social enterprises are organizations that try to reconcile the often competitive economic and social missions, by developing hybrid projects that produce both economic and social value. Nonetheless, the sustainability of those initiatives seems often at stake, due to market pressures. As a result, social enterprises often have to undermine their social mission goals, in order to achieve an economic sustainability. The present paper will try to explore how social enterprises can remain economically sustainable, without losing track of their social mission. The in-depth research of an Austrian social enterprise, i.e. OTELO, and of its regional institutional framework (NUTS3 region of Muhlviertel), reveals the need of an institutionalization of this new form of entrepreneurship. In order to achieve a holistic sustainability, social entrepreneurship has to become institutionalized. Potentialities of this process will be investigated.