A Study of Social Enterprises and Social Innovation in The Non-Commercial Sector

The social enterprises and social innovation in the non-commercial sector have asubstantial contribution to the affirmation of democratic values in our society, to theformation of public social policies of the state and the municipalities, to the activeparticipation of Bulgarian citizens in the solving of their social problems. In a narrowersense, the non-commercial sector has a significant role in the sphere of coordination,freedom of information, sharing of knowledge. As a result of this, the present study has asits goal to study, analyse and assess applied aspects of social enterprises and socialinnovation in the non-commercial sector of Republic of Bulgaria, andon that basis todraw and systematize their contributions, as well as the guidelines for their improvement,for the purpose of developing social enterprises and the social environment.The applied study of social enterprises and social innovation includesa wide rangeof methods and tools. Initially the research strategy is focused on the study, analysis andassessment of the categories we are interested in on the basis of secondary research. In amore detailed study of social innovation in the non-commercial sector there is used theso-called "content analysis". In the study of the systems for monitoring and evaluation ofthe contributions of social enterprises and social innovation in the non-commercial sectorthere are also used case studies.As a result of the conducted research there are found important issues concerningthe formation and realization of social enterprises and innovations in the non-commercial sector of this country. There is proven the lack of systematized, statistical information onthe implemented innovations and contributions in the non-commercial sector of Republic of Bulgaria; the multiple registers for recording the non-profit structures in this country,respectively the various institutions responsible for their monitoring control. The established weaknesses lead to the formulation of guidelines for improving the social enterprises and innovations in the non-commercial sector of this country.