Empathy as a driver of social entrepreneurship: insights from the Bulgarian context

Ana Todorova (), Irina Kostadinova () and Nataliya Venelinova ()
Additional contact information
Irina Kostadinova: "Angel Kanchev" University of Ruse, Bulgaria
Nataliya Venelinova: "Angel Kanchev" University of Ruse, Bulgaria

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, 2024, vol. 12, issue 2, 71-84

Abstract: Social entrepreneurship, understudied as a business and social phenomenon, hides its potential, and what drives those involved in a social activity still needs to be clarified. The paper's authors assume that empathy is the basis of starting a socially significant business and seek confirmation of this thesis in direct communication with social entrepreneurs from Bulgaria. The research methodology is based on the author's conceptual framework, which includes two groups of results – quantitative and qualitative – that aim to confirm or reject the formulated hypotheses. The results show a positive relationship between empathy and starting a socially engaged business. The analysis identifies empathy as a vital catalyst for the social entrepreneur, along with communication skills, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking. The research shows that empathy is a prerequisite for starting a socially engaged business and can significantly contribute to the organisation's success. At the same time, there is a subjective conclusion that Bulgarian social entrepreneurs are not responsive enough, which may hinder social changes and the development of social enterprises in the country. Future research will explore that topic.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship; empathy; social activity; social economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 L31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://jssidoi.org/jesi/uploads/articles/46/Todor ... ulgarian_context.pdf (application/pdf)
https://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/1247 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ssi:jouesi:v:12:y:2024:i:2:p:71-84

DOI: 10.9770/n4955682927

Access Statistics for this article

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is currently edited by Manuela Tvaronaviciene

More articles in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues from VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Manuela Tvaronaviciene ().