A viability study of Social Economy firms in a market economy: an application in southern Spain

Acceptance of the Social Economy has grown in response to recent events in the capitalist economic system, which have laid bare some of the flaws in the conventional economic model. This increase in the Social Economy’s importance was officially acknowledged in 2011, when the Spanish parliament passed a national Social Economy Law. Another such landmark occurred in 2011, with the Andalusian government signing the third Pact for the Social Economy. Thus even public authorities have demonstrated their awareness of the importance of this layer of the economy. In addition, research has shown that entrepreneurial quality is of the utmost importance for the economic growth of territories. The current research attempts to analyse the entrepreneurial quality of the companies that belong to the Social Economy in Seville (Andalusia, Spain) and to compare them to conventional businesses from Andalusia (Spain) through a descriptive analysis. Hence the aim of this study is to confirm whether a business model based on the Social Economy is a viable and sustainable long-term alternative to conventional businesses. The results show that the Social Economy model may offer a better alternative than the more prevalent conventional business model.