What Drives Social Entrepreneurship? Insights from a New RIBES Deliverable

A recent RIBES deliverable written by White Research explores this question by looking at the socio-economic, psychological and behavioural factors that shape social entrepreneurship across Greece, Italy, Poland and Romania. Drawing on survey findings, regression analysis, spatial visualisations and EUROSTAT data, the study offers a closer look at how personal perceptions and regional conditions influence socially driven entrepreneurial ambition.

Looking beyond individual motivation

Social entrepreneurship is often presented as a way to respond to social challenges while creating economically sustainable solutions. Within the RIBES project, this analysis examines the conditions that appear to support or strengthen that intention, especially in contexts where technological innovation mechanisms are more limited.

Rather than focusing on a single explanation, the deliverable brings together different layers of analysis. It considers how individuals perceive culture and institutions, how demographic factors such as age play a role, and how regional realities such as poverty may shape entrepreneurial intention.

The role of culture and institutional support

One of the clearest findings is that culture and institutions matter. Specifically, the analysis shows that individuals who value performance-based cultural norms and who perceive institutions as socially supportive are significantly more likely to report stronger social entrepreneurial intention. More specifically, a one standard deviation increase in performance-based culture is associated with an increase in social entrepreneurial intention of around 0.17 to 0.19 standard deviations. A comparable increase in perceived socially supportive institutions corresponds to an increase of about 0.15 standard deviations.

These findings point to an important conclusion: social entrepreneurship is not shaped by personal motivation alone. It is also influenced by the extent to which people feel that their surrounding environment recognises, supports and enables socially oriented action.

Younger people show stronger entrepreneurship

The deliverable also identifies age as an important factor. According to the regression analysis, age has a negative and highly significant relationship with social entrepreneurial intention. A one standard deviation increase in age is associated with a decrease of roughly 0.19 standard deviations in social entrepreneurial intention. In practical terms, this means that younger individuals are substantially more likely to express interest in pursuing social entrepreneurship.

This finding highlights the potential role of younger generations in driving socially oriented entrepreneurial activity and suggests that support measures aimed at younger people may be especially relevant in this field.

Regional poverty as a contextual factor

The study also brings in a regional perspective through spatial visualisations that combine survey data with external EUROSTAT data. Here, the analysis finds a correlation between social entrepreneurial intention and regional poverty. Areas with higher regional poverty rates, such as parts of southern Italy and Romania, appear to rely more on social entrepreneurship.

This pattern is reinforced by the regression results, where regional poverty stands out as the only consistently significant contextual factor. A one standard deviation increase in the regional poverty rate is associated with an increase in social entrepreneurial intention of about 0.06 standard deviations.

Taken together, this suggests that in more economically deprived regions, social entrepreneurship may be seen not only as an opportunity, but also as a response to unmet social needs and local challenges.

A more layered picture of social entrepreneurship

Overall, the findings show that social entrepreneurial intention is shaped by a combination of personal perceptions, generational differences and regional context.

The deliverable does not reduce social entrepreneurship to one driving factor. Instead, it presents a more layered picture in which culture, institutional support and local socio-economic realities interact. In that sense, the study helps move the conversation beyond broad assumptions and towards a more grounded understanding of the conditions that can encourage socially motivated entrepreneurial action.

What the findings could mean in practice

The deliverable also points to a number of practical considerations. Based on the findings, policymakers could consider strengthening local and institutional support structures through accessible seed funding, tailored mentorship and simplified administrative processes, particularly in rural and economically disadvantaged areas. Additionally, public campaigns and community initiatives could help foster more supportive norms around personal responsibility and entrepreneurial risk-taking, especially among younger populations.

In this context, the collaborative spaces for stakeholders named Multi-actor Transformative Forums (MTFs) enabled in the RIBES project, may serve a dual role, both as institutional support mechanisms and as facilitators of a more supportive entrepreneurial culture within engaged communities.

White Research’s contribution

For White Research, this deliverable reflects the value of bringing a strong Social Sciences and Humanities perspective to project research while translating project scientific results into clear, structured insight. By bringing together data analysis, regional perspective and practical implications, the work supports a more informed discussion around the factors that can enable social entrepreneurship to emerge and grow across different contexts.

Relevant EU resources

• European Commission, Social Economy Action Plan

• European Commission, Social Enterprises and Their Ecosystems in Europe

• European Committee of the Regions, The State of Regions and Cities: EU Annual Report 2025