Financing Ecuadorian Social Enterprises: What Is the Role of Impact Investment?

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship is a topic of great development at the research level, which aims to discover, exploit and define the possibilities of increasing social wealth through activities and processes carried out with the creation and management of an innovative enterprise. From this, it has been identified that one of the main problems of social entrepreneurs in underdeveloped countries is the lack of financing, where new forms of financing have not been consolidated, as is the case with impact investment. Therefore, the objective of this research is to determine the role of impact investment in each of the Ecuadorian social enterprises under study. To this end, a qualitative research methodology of an interpretive nature was adopted through in-depth interviews with social entrepreneurs for the construction of results by means of summary tables and descriptive and graphic taxonomy. The results show that for most of the social enterprises studied, the role of impact investment is null, without this implying a lack of knowledge on the part of the social enterprises. Finally, it is necessary that policymakers take into account the need to promote sustainable development by improving social inclusion to support projects and enterprises that generate employment and opportunities for marginalized and vulnerable groups, promoting policies and measures that encourage this type of investment to generate a positive impact on the country.