Report Social entrepreneurship and social innovation – Initiatives to promote social entrepreneurship and social innovation in the Nordic countries presents the results from a survey of initiatives to support social entrepreneurship and social innovation in the Nordic Region. The survey addresses the challenges faced by the Nordic countries with regard to maintaining and further developing social welfare. The Nordic Council of Ministers (NMR) has put these challenges on the agenda on a number of occasions. In autumn 2012 the Norwegian Presidency organised a Nordic seminar on social entrepreneurship. One experience from this seminar was that there are different types of initiative and support for promoting social entrepreneurship in the Nordic countries, so there should also be a potential for mutual learning.

The survey shows that there is a broad spectrum of initiatives in the Nordic countries.
Examples of the following types of initiative were surveyed in all the countries: Funding, advice/competence development, incubation, network
building, research & development, education, increasing visibility, lobbying, legal framework, strategic development work and safeguarding business interests.
The survey also reveals that most respondents have key initiatives that are followed up by other initiatives in order to support the key initiative.
All respondents ticked at least two types of initiative, most more than two, with some replying that they offer all types of initiative.
Both the material collected and the data for each country contained most examples of advice/competence development, increasing visibility
and network building. Initiatives focusing on advice/competence development include different types of course and other training, conferences,
workshops, guidance and advice provided through board membership.
Network building involves the creation of fixed structures around defined networks (network associations), ad hoc groups set up in various organisations, and the use of workshops and seminars. Increasing visibility is about several of the same activities and various forms of
knowledge sharing.

Download the full survey here.

Källa: Social entrepreneurship and social innovation – Initiatives to promote social entrepreneurship and social innovation in the Nordic countries