New reports about social enterprises conditions and needs

Tell us about the reports. What new knowledge do they provide?

In these reports we highlight the conditions and needs in rural social enterprises in Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden from various perspectives. We show that social enterprises are important enablers in rural areas but they struggle with the economy and need to be more recognized. 

Is there anything in the results that you would like to highlight as particularly interesting?

According to our study the research efforts to enhance the knowledge about social entrepreneurship seems to have declined in recent years in all the investigated countries and that it is especially true for Sweden. Ireland is far ahead in terms of research contributions about the conditions of rural social enterprises followed by Norwegian research efforts. In Iceland the research on social entrepreneurship is still a young but strongly emerging field. 

The results of this report show that there is still a generally large gap in society when it comes to knowledge about the conditions for social enterprises and their contribution to people's social well-being and significance for the local community, especially in rural areas.

What can the results contribute and why is it important?

The reports will increase the knowledge about the conditions for rural social enterprises in Northern Periphery and Arctic regions. The results shows that the rural environment affects the social enterprises to a large extent and many of the social enterprises believe that it is difficult to reach profitability in the social enterprises, especially when they are located in the countryside.

Who benefits from reading the reports and learning about the results?

Social entrepreneurs, support organisations, policymakers, researchers, NGOs and the general public.

What are the next steps in the MERSE project?

Now we are providing webinars to discuss the results from the report with different stakeholders as well as develop stakeholder networks to enhance peer-to-peer learning on how to work for making it easier to start and run sustainable social enterprises in local communities in the Northern Periphery and Arctic Regions. 

Here you can read the reports:

MERSE Transnational Knowledge Report

Conditions For Social Enterprises in NPA Regions