PEST-FACTORS OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE: HELICOPTER VIEW

Abstract

The article presents the results of the study of PEST-factors of social entrepreneurship development in Ukraine. The aim was to identify their current and projected impact in order to develop an action strategy. The systematization of the processed sources testifi ed to the accumulation in recent years of signifi cant information on social entrepreneurship development in Ukraine. However, the problem of discrepancy between the amount of theoretical knowledge and the needs of practice to act in conditions of permanent challenges remains relevant. The study was conducted from August 2020 to May 2021. The methodology of PEST-analysis was used: desk research, expert survey, preparation of a summary table and calculations based on survey results, development of actions for social entrepreneurship development in the upcoming years (within the factors that experts gave the most importance). The results: 1) PEST-factors of social entrepreneurship development in Ukraine are characterized by ambivalence; 2) the most illustrative ambivalent tendencies exist in political and socio-cultural groups of factors (risks of socio-economic and political instability border on the possibilities of institutional capacity of civil society organizations and decentralization); 3) the main challenges are grouped in a group of economic factors (dependence on international donors, insuffi cient budget funding, low competitiveness, etc.); 4) there exist an imbalance in the group of technological factors (the use of online resources received the most weight among all the factors proposed for evaluation in the format of PEST-analysis, whereas lack of necessary equipment, premises received the lowest); 5) experts predict the strengthening of the infl uence of the following factors in the nearest future: strengthening of the institutional capacity of civil society organizations, decentralization of power in the framework of administrative refor, use of online resources; 6) no changes are expected in terms of the impact of the following factors: socioeconomic and political instability, dissemination of social problems, insuffi cient understanding of the concept of social entrepreneurship, legislative irregularities, dependence on international sources of funding, lack of strong teams, development strategies, fi nancial and marketing plans, and lack of social entrepreneurship evaluation tools; 7) none of the studied factors is noted by experts as one that will not cease to exist in the future. The authors attribute the actions for the further development of social entrepreneurship mainly to the possibilities of decentralization. The obtained results can be useful for the development of SE development strategies at the regional level and the application of the PEST analysis methodology in further monitoring studies.