Social entrepreneurship: distinctive features, support institutions and development problems.

The content of the article is dictated by the lack of a unified understanding of the nature and significance of the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship in the scientific discussion, the openness of the question of its status as a special type of social and economic activity along with other types of socially oriented activity. The aim of the study is to understand the accumulated theoretical developments on the problems of developing social activities carried out on an entrepreneurial basis and the formation of a system of its institutional support, as well as to generalize the practical experience of social business. The authors rely on a integrated and institutional approaches, as well as methods of systematic comparison, typological and normative analysis. The focus of the study is on the key features and motives of social business in contrast to other social institutions and purely commercial entrepreneurial activity. Since the development of social entrepreneurship is inextricably linked with the state of the institutional environment, the article discusses the concept of the institutional environment and key institutions for supporting social entrepreneurship. The study of the process of formation and institutionalization of socially oriented activities in Tajikistan allowed us to identify the main problems that hinder its development, including: underdevelopment of investment mechanisms, formal and bureaucratic barriers, low qualifications of social entrepreneurs, low public confidence. Measures aimed at developing the infrastructure for supporting social entrepreneurial activity in the Republic of Tajikistan are proposed.