Study on promoting cross-border activities for social economy

The study “Promoting Cross-Border activities for Social Economy, including Social Enterprises” (EASME/COSME/2018/032) has aimed to identify, analyse and report on cross-border social economy activities as well as corresponding European and national policies to promote successful approaches. SE actors embark on cross-border activities for reasons that may not necessarily be connected to generating profit – like for-profit traditional SMEs. Motivations and inspiration in the SE sphere usually have to do more with their mission, vision and social impact aimed to be achieved. They engage in cross-border activities mainly via four types of transnational activities, mutually non-exclusive: distribution (instead of mere export for for-profit businesses), replication (instead of merely equity/ownership-based activities), sourcing (which is wider than imports), and collaboration and collective impact (which is broader than contractual business agreements). Based on a comparison of 52 case studies we identified 12 cross-border pathways of SE organisations.