The latest study of HÉTFA Research Institute was published with the title of “Impact of Social Enterprises on the Local Labour Market and Economy in the field of Agro-Food Industry”. The research supported by the Ministry of Finance has examined the local equilibrium effects of Hungarian social economy on supply and demand of employment in agro-food industry.
The research, working with both qualitative and quantitative methods, focused on rural and agricultural areas. It aims to develop a mixed analysing model for the social enterprise’s complex employment effects, which can be extended later to assess the employment impacts of social enterprises in relevant segments and regions, such as in the field of social and health services.
According to the main results, profit-oriented and social enterprises are differentiated by their value system. While the economic functions are the most important factors in the value system of SMEs, the social enterprises concentrate on social functions and their employment focus has also bigger importance. In the social economy, job creation is the primary objective, especially in case of employees who are in a difficult condition in the labour market. However, the lack of workforce also causes serious problems in these companies.
Social enterprises often lack entrepreneurial attitudes and skills. The creation of legal framework is inevitable for their development, as well as the elaboration of a national social enterprise developmental strategy that defines conceptual and supportive directions, frameworks, and shows predictable development paths for these businesses.
The study was presented by Luca Koltai, research leader (Chief Consultant of the Division for Public Policy and Impact Assessment of HÉTFA), and Gábor Balás, CEO of HÉTFA, at the conference entitled “Social economy: employment, entrepreneurship and innovation”, organized jointly by the Ministry of Human Capacities and World Bank.
The summary of presentation is available here.