This diploma thesis explores the functioning of social enterprises in the Republic of Slovenia. It focuses on the position of social entrepreneurs in a state which is only now getting familiar with social entrepreneurship, despite the fact that the Social Entrepreneurship Act has been in motion for several years. In other parts of the world, however, this specific type of entrepre-neurship is beginning to compete with the common forms of businesses. The theoretical intro-duction defines social economy and presents its role and goals which is then followed by the definition and characteristics of social entrepreneurship in the countries of the European Un-ion and the evolution of social entrepreneurship in Slovenia. Social entrepreneurship is then determined as part of the legal system of the Republic of Slovenia. The theoretical introduc-tion presents the contribution of research to the field of social entrepreneurship and deter-mines the influence of social entrepreneurship on society. The key element of the theoretical part is the description of social entrepreneurship as innovation for the future. The focus is on employing vulnerable social groups in social enterprises, a process which underwent some changes due to the Act Amending the Social Entrepreneurship Act. Furthermore, the signifi-cance of social entrepreneurship for the future and its role in innovation is explained. The con-cept of strengthening is linked to the employment of vulnerable social groups in social enter-prises.
The empirical part of the thesis presents the results of qualitative research obtained by the pro-cess of interviewing directors or managers of social enterprises who have been working in the field of social entrepreneurship since the adoption of the first Social Entrepreneurship Act in 2011 (or at least 5 years). The interviewees were individuals currently running a social enter-prise. It was determined that social entrepreneurs recognize the importance of nomenclature and indicate the need to rebrand social entrepreneurship as socially beneficial entrepreneur-ship. Social enterprises are established with the intention of socially responsible activity. Social entrepreneurs react to broader societal needs, while the assessment of work is possible due to profitability indicators. Research showed that their knowledge of the law is poor or inade-quate. The implemented Act Amending the Social Entrepreneurship Act did not have a great impact on the entrepreneurs’ performance while their biggest obstacles is funding. The in-volvement of the state is perceived as impulsive and discouraging despite the fact that the state possesses the tools for attracting investments. Social entrepreneurs expressed the need for more favourable involvement of the state in social enterprises. The obtained results were then linked with existing theoretical knowledge and further developed. Based on the results, the following proposals were formed: specialist conferences for social entrepreneurs on per-formance of social enterprises which will enable them to gain professional skills needed to improve the performance of the businesses, the implementation of a call for financial applica-tions with complete criteria which will enable social enterprises to receive increased financial contributions and the ability to fund select social enterprises on a larger scale rather than fi-nance all enterprises on a smaller scale, promoting and presenting good practice of social en-terprises in Slovenia, and the implementation of special certificates for particularly successful social enterprises.
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