In one of its previous books, the EMES European Research Network traced the most significant developments in 'social entrepreneurship' emerging inside the third sector in Europe. Building upon that seminal work, this volume presents the results of an extensive research project carried out over a four-year period of a comparative analysis of 160 social enterprises across eleven EU countries.

It breaks new ground in both its articulation of multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks and its rigorous analysis of empirical evidence based on a homogenized data collection methodology.