Search

The impact of the internationalization of social economy companies generates balanced profit and loss accounts (triple bottom line) and spreads still further a way of doing business which focuses on a socially sustainable production economy, at a great distance from the speculative economy. Previous evidence of the differential and strategic fact of social economy companies and their need to internationalize in order to guarantee their sustainability triggered this investigation. Its aim was to generate knowledge about the international orientation of cooperative companies and worker-owned companies in Andalusia and to link this to their economic results and the outcome of their innovations. Confirming the Uppsala Model through the international orientation status of social economy companies in Andalusia, this paper shows how a series of specific factors, in addition to the relationship with increasing commercial innovation, have an impact on this orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spanish social economy enterprises (SEE), like capital-based ones, have been facing a general economic crisis since 2008. SEE in the Murcia region are no exception. They are mainly small and mediumsized companies and because of their lack of size and structure they face considerable competitive difficulties in fighting this situation. This paper is based on a survey of 102 social economy enterprises in the Murcia Region, essentially labour companies and cooperatives in the service and industrial sectors, which was conducted in early 2010. To examine the situation in which companies from these sectors - mostly micro-enterprises - find themselves, information was collected on their main ratios in 2009, their expectations and their assessment of the competitive context and the main difficulties they face in the current situation of economic and social crisis. The extensive questionnaire made it possible to classify these enterprises into four types, based on the evolution of their main economic ratios (jobs, sales, investment and profits), and in a second stage, to consider the relation with whether or not the companies had adopted active innovation strategies and strategic planning. This made it possible to define the companies that had been able to improve or at least maintain the levels of their principal ratios even in times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to build the satellite accounts of the Social Economy enterprises in Asturias for 2005, in order to ascertain the chief macroeconomic dimensions so that the importance, strengths and weaknesses of this sector may be explored. These accounts are drawn up according to type of activity and enterprise. A prior descriptive analysis of the Social Economy of Asturias has been made, both at the level of sector enterprises and the employment it generates; likewise, a geographical study of where these third sector enterprises are located and their characteristics has also been undertaken. To enrich the data, a comparative study of the importance of the Social Economy in relation to the "rest" of the economy of Asturias and with the Social Economy nationally was also made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]