The impact of the formal institutional environment on the development of social entrepreneurship in Russia's regions

The activities of social enterprises, focused on achieving socially useful goals that contribute to the solution of social problems, depends on the existing institutional conditions. At the same time, the influence of formal and informal institutions can differ significantly. The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of the formal institutional environment on the development of social entrepreneurship at the regional level. In the work we substantiated the heterogeneity of the development of this activity in the regions of Russia, which is due to differences in the supporting institutional environment. We tested hypotheses about the influence of GRP, average per capita income of the population in the region, the level of investment attractiveness, the presence of a regional program for the development of social entrepreneurship, and the expenditures of the consolidated budgets of the Russian constituent entities on the implementation of social support measures. Based on the data obtained, we built a regression model showing that the development of social entrepreneurship in the region depends on the level of economic development, measured by the level of average per capita income, and the availability of programs to support social enterprises. We have been revealed that in Russian regions the availability of support measures seems to be a more important condition for the development of social entrepreneurship than the investment attractiveness of the territory. This indicates the need for regulation of this activity by the state. Theoretical significance of the study consists in modeling the development of social entrepreneurship in the regions of Russia. The practical significance lies in the possibility of applying the results obtained for the development of social entrepreneurship at the regional level.