Social entrepreneurship as an innovative factor in territory's development

In the context of signifi cant inter-regional diff erentiation, the regions of Russia have to seek internal reserves to ensure progressive development. Since neither public authorities nor market forces are able to produce suffi cient public goods, there is a need for the intervention of an additional element that can compensate for their failure. One of the main actors ensuring sustainable development of the territory is the non-profi t sector, particularly in the form of social entrepreneurship, acting as a conductor of innovation in the public life. This actualizes the quantitative assessment of the current state of social entrepreneurship at the regional level, which was the purpose of this paper. As a base for the analysis we chose the regions of the Northwestern Federal District, the leaders in the share of social enterprises among small and medium-sized businesses. The results of the study, obtained using methods of comparative analysis and description, revealed a low level of development of social entrepreneurship, but confi rmed the assumption that it develops in the spheres of education, social services, sports and recreation, which are not of signifi cant interest to business. The main barriers that slow down the development of social entrepreneurship in the Russian regions are the lack of access to fi nancial support measures and the low level of citizens' entrepreneurial culture. To increase the contribution of social entrepreneurship in the socio-economic development of regions, the following is necessary: systematic activities of both public authorities and the non-profi t sector to develop and promote educational, training, acceleration programs and create an optimal environment for the functioning of social enterprises as a provider of public goods. The quantitative assessment of social enterprises' activities in these constituent entities of the Russian Federation determined the scientifi c novelty of the study.