The research has been done by Swedish NGO “Youth Power”, as part of the project “One Step Ahead”, which is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the EU. The research is about social entrepreneurship in Sweden and its legal framework.
There is currently no legal definition in Sweden for “social enterprise”. The legal form “Aktiebolag med Särskild Vinstutdelningsbegränsning” (henceforth SVB), translated as: “Limited company with a special dividend restriction” is not typically used. Social entrepreneurship is twofold in Swedish and consists of “Samhällsentreprenör” and “Social Entreprenör”. The first, ‘Societal Entrepreneur’ describes someone who takes an innovative initiative to enhance society in any way. The second word focuses more purely on the term ‘Social’ and denotes innovations that aim to improving the society for people. By definition, the latter comprises a subset of the first.
The majority of social enterprises are still non-profit organisations. A smaller share has taken the legal form of foundations; cooperatives, ; and limited companies with a growing share among newer social enterprises. Among the more established social enterprises (with an organisational age over 5 years), hybrid legal solutions are more common. The reason for this might be that it is easier to pay salaries through the company, but it also allows the social enterprise to simultaneously receive grants and maintain the economic transparency of the operation.
For more information read the attached document below:
Comments are closed.