Searching for the determinants of new social enterprises: the case of Italian social start-ups

Abstract

Social start-ups constitute a subclass of the innovative entrepreneurship market and a relatively new topic in the literature from both a scientific and normative perspectives. In Italy, a start-up can be registered as "Startup Innovativa A Vocazione Sociale" (SIAVS), after demonstrating its ability to provide social impacts and satisfy a set of normative requirements. The main contribution of this paper is to describe and modelling (at the territorial level) the presence of this type of new innovative companies focused on social, cultural, and/or environmental needs. With this aim, we combine data regarding the number of SIAVS and other start-ups in Italy with other socio-economic explanatory variables at the provincial level. Indicators such as population density, number of certified incubators and percentage of non profit organizations are identified as determinants of new social enterprises through the application of generalized linear models.