Sheltered Employment Centres: Sustainability and Social Value

María Jesús Segovia-Vargas, María del Mar Camacho-Miñano, Fernanda Cristina Pedrosa Alberto and Vera Gelashvili
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María Jesús Segovia-Vargas: Department of Financial and Actuarial Economics & Statistics, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Campus of Somosaguas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Pozuelo-de-Alarcón, 28230 Madrid, Spain
María del Mar Camacho-Miñano: Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Campus of Somosaguas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Pozuelo-de-Alarcón, 28230 Madrid, Spain
Fernanda Cristina Pedrosa Alberto: Department of Accounting, Coimbra Business School ISCAC, 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal
Vera Gelashvili: Department of Business, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, King Juan Carlos University, 28032 Madrid, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-16

Abstract: Sheltered employment centres are social enterprises where at least 70% of their workers have disabilities. They are a way of helping people with disabilities to work in good working conditions and of allowing disadvantaged people to live a full life. However, some people criticise these businesses for being ghettos where public subsidies are used inefficiently. Our paper aims to test if this criticism is valid by analysing whether these companies provide social and economic value to society in return for public funding and are also economically sustainable over time. Using a sample of 997 Spanish sheltered employment centres, a descriptive analysis of the main variables has been carried out. Additionally, the results of a PART algorithm show the relationship between these companies and economic sustainability. Our findings corroborate that these firms are economically sustainable and, at the same time, socially sustainable. These results highlight the great work that such companies perform for society and the country’s economy.

Keywords: sheltered employment centres; sustainability; economic sustainability; social sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7900-:d:594728

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