Social Enterprise: a reality of the Social Economy in Spain

Abstract

The objective of the research was to identify the current social business fabric in Spain, as well as to detail the profile of the active Social Enterprise. In this identification, an inductive investigation was proposed through a quantitative analysis from secondary sources, in particular, from four public directories of Social Enterprises located in Spain. From which a self database (directory) was prepared with several common variables (size, sector, year of incorporation, region) about corporate characteristics. When the data were obtained, they were processed with Stata, in a descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of a localized population of 2,587 companies. Several defining characteristics of the current Social Enterprises of Spain were determined, such as territorial concentration (most are located in three regions: Andalusia, Community of Madrid and Catalonia) where the Social Economy takes root traditionally. This profile of Social Enterprises derived from the study contributed to the national literature by responding to the theories of various authors and empirically confirming the existing deductions about social organization with the variety of experiences and models obtained. Therefore, this study was placed in an emerging research line of mapping and typification territorial.