This paper presents an overview of the two factors affecting the development of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in the Baltic Sea Region: human resources and the legal framework, making reference to the pertinent literature and an existing theory. The authors base their research on the survey conducted among the representatives of social enterprises across the seven Baltic Sea Region countries and focus group interviews. The results of the study show that there is a great disparity in the level of support offered to social entrepreneurs from the researched countries and that the same human resources theories could be applied to traditional and social enterprises. The study has also shown that social enterprise legislation is not the key factor in the development of a social economy in the researched countries, but further work on an adequate legislation is needed.

This paper presents an overview of the two factors affecting the development of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in the Baltic Sea Region: human resources and the legal framework, making reference to the pertinent literature and an existing theory. The authors base their research on the survey conducted among the representatives of social enterprises across the seven Baltic Sea Region countries and focus group interviews. The results of the study show that there is a great disparity in the level of support offered to social entrepreneurs from the researched countries and that the same human resources theories could be applied to traditional and social enterprises. The study has also shown that social enterprise legislation is not the key factor in the development of a social economy in the researched countries, but further work on an adequate legislation is needed.