Model of social business incubation in Romania
In the last fifteen years social businesses represent one of the main drivers of social inclusion and community development in Romania. Social businesses, and especially social enterprises, are considered as a panacea for various social problems like poverty, unemployment, employment of vulnerable people, etc. They are an active social inclusion policy instrument, mainly due to their role in social inclusion developed through the European Social Fund.
The study Model of social incubation in Romania aims to analyze the mechanisms and services of incubation and acceleration for social businesses based on their development needs and the main challenges they face. It is the first study dedicated to the analysis of incubation services and methods for social businesses in Romania that have as objectives:
1) Identification of incubation models for social entrepreneurs and social enterprises;
2) Identification of services provided by organizations carrying out incubation and accelerated activities for social entrepreneurs and social enterprises;
3) Analysis of the needs of social entrepreneurs/ social enterprises.
The social incubation patterns in Romania, Cyprus and Italy were analyzed through an extensive methodology that include various data collection methods:
- desk review, secondary data analysis, public policy analysis;
- best practice examples of social business incubators, financial instruments and hubs (16);
- entrepreneurial stories (4);
- in-depth interviews with representatives of social enterprises (5).