Introductory aspects on the sustainability of social enterprises

Debates on sustainable development have intensified due to social, economic and environmental changes. Sustainability has become an integral element in the development strategies of many organisations, an evaluation criterion for project proposals or efficient allocation of funds, an important element on the school curriculum, especially in business schools, and even a research topic. The interest in the sustainability of social enterprises covers two main directions: on the one hand, more broadly, the contribution of these structures, which are regarded as sustainability-driven business models (Alter, 2007; NEEsT; Borzaga, DepedriTortia, 2014), to sustainable development, and on the other hand, the survival of these organisations in the context of their extremely high dependence on donors. Considering the still non-unified definitions of social economy and social enterprise at national level, and the large number of newly established social enterprises, in Romania concerns seem to be directed more towards the second perspective on sustainability, the survival of a social enterprise after the funding ends being one of the biggest challenges. This paper is an introduction to the sustainability of social enterprises and summarises the theoretical framework of sustainable development and sustainability; it also presents some of the elements that will form the basis for future qualitative research.