Social Entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan: Exploring the Influence of Political and Social Environment on the Process of Social Entrepreneurship

There are a few previous studies on the influence of the environment and the social entrepreneurship process in transition economies. However, to our knowledge, there are no studies considering the political and social environment as influencing factors in social entrepreneurship in the context of countries in the Central Asia region. This study attempts to bridge this gap in social entrepreneurship research in the transition economies by investigating the effects of the political environment (corruption and lack of trust in authority) and social environment (education and income inequality) on the opportunity development process of social entrepreneurship in Kyrgyzstan. The sample for this study includes nine social enterprises in Kyrgyzstan. Due to the scarcity of previous research on social entrepreneurship in transition economies, especially in the Central Asia region, an abductive case study research design was employed. This research revealed that the opportunity development process in social enterprises in Kyrgyzstan is affected by the political factor (the lack of trust in authority) and social factors (education and income inequality). However, there was no connection between corruption, as a political factor, and the opportunity development process.