The role of stakeholder networks in shaping the development of social enterprise ecosystems

This chapter will explore the role of stakeholder and institutional networks in shaping the development of social enterprise ecosystems across Europe. A Weberian view of power is adopted in order to show that dominant stakeholders can distort reality, obscure truth, and create paradigmatic narratives while pursuing their own interests. This chapter will also draw upon biological evolutionary theory, social network theory, and network pluralism to identify a typology of social enterprise ecosystems. This typology was developed based upon qualitative data (semi-structured interviews and focus groups) collected across 11 European countries from 258 key stakeholders, while also exploring the historical, political, social, legal, and economic conditions in each country. The data was used to create stakeholder network maps for each country, which were then analyzed to identify trends and linkages. The results identify the emergence of four social enterprise ecosystem types (Statist-macro, Statist-micro, Private-macro, and Private-micro) that help explain the differences found in the social enterprise ecosystems of all eleven countries. The emergence of an “ideal-type” ecosystem is posited in relation to these four types, which can be used by stakeholders across Europe to understand how best to support their local social economies.