Social Entrepreneurship and Institutions: A Cross-Country Analysis with Insights for Post- Socialist Societies

Abstract

This thesis studies how institutional factors: property rights (proxied by constraints on executive power), government activism, and generalized trust, influence individuals’ engagement in social entrepreneurship across countries, with a focus on post-socialist contexts. The research aims to answer the following question: ‘To what extent do institutional factors, such as property rights, government activism and generalized trust, influence social entrepreneurship across countries, and what insights can be drawn for post-socialist contexts?’. Using multilevel logistic regression on Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data, the study tests four hypotheses based on institutional and social capital theory. The main finding is that none of the included institutional variables show robust or statistically significant effects on social entrepreneurial activity. While some interaction effects appear in the regression outputs, these are not supported by interaction plot analysis or robustness checks. The results highlight the need for more context-sensitive approaches when studying social entrepreneurship in transition economies.