The paper analyses the peculiarieties of social economy, focusing the scientific attention to social enterprises and their environment in EU and, especially, Lithuania. The research problem of the paper lays upon revealing the situation and development of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in EU and Lithuania, especially emphasizing rural areas and their peculiarities. The aim of the paper is to disclose the role of social economy and the importance of social enterprises in it, especially concentrating on the environment analysis for such business in Lithuanian rural areas. In the research paper, there were analysed social economy context and importance, legal, economic and social environment of social enterprises in Lithuanian rural area, and social enterprises in Lithuania in terms of latest statistical data. Main findings of the fulfilled research are following: social economy remains very important in EU countries, but the exposure of it is quite different in various countries. Lithuania is trying to implement the principals of social economy in the policy of the country. Now the attention is focused on social entrepreneurship and social enterprises as the unused potential for economy boost in the country. Environement analysis of social enterprises, especially focusing on rural areas of Lithuania, revealed that situation is getting better, but there are a lot of things to be improved for successful development of social business in the country. The improvement should start from public institutions and their focused activity to improve conditions for social enterprises. Otherwise, intentions from business actors are very important also. The further guidance of this research could lead to deeper analysis of social entrepreneurs’ intentions due to starting up social business gathering primary data from the potential and existing entrepreneurs. Rural areas remain as unexplored area for social business creation, especially when additional financial support is planned for them.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.11.18916

中文翻译：

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社会经济：立陶宛社会企业的潜力和挑战

本文分析了社会经济的特殊性，重点关注了欧盟尤其是立陶宛的社会企业及其环境。本文的研究问题在于揭示欧盟和立陶宛社会企业家精神和社会企业的状况和发展，特别是强调农村地区及其特殊性。本文的目的是揭示社会经济的作用以及社会企业在其中的重要性，尤其是集中于立陶宛农村地区此类企业的环境分析。在研究论文中，根据最新的统计数据，分析了立陶宛农村地区社会企业和立陶宛社会企业的社会经济背景和重要性，法律，经济和社会环境。这项成就卓著的研究的主要发现如下：在欧盟国家，社会经济仍然非常重要，但是在不同国家中，其暴露程度却大不相同。立陶宛正努力在国家政策中落实社会经济原则。现在，注意力集中在社会企业家精神和社会企业上，这是该国尚未发挥的促进经济增长的潜力。对社会企业的环境分析，特别是立陶宛农村地区的社会企业，发现情况正在改善，但是要使该国的社会企业成功发展，还有很多事情需要改进。改善应从公共机构及其有针对性的活动开始，以改善社会企业的条件。否则，业务参与者的意图也非常重要。这项研究的进一步指导可能会导致社会企业家的意图得到更深入的分析，这是因为启动了社会业务，从潜在和现有的企业家那里收集主要数据。农村地区仍然是未开发社会企业的地区，特别是在计划为其提供额外财政支持时。DOI：http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.11.18916