Transformations  in
Business & Economics

THE PERCEPTION OF THE SOCIAL ECONOMY BY AGRICULTURAL PRODUCERS IN THE NORTH-EAST DEVELOPMENT REGION OF ROMANIA
Silvius Stanciu, Florina Oana Virlanuta, Vasile Dinu, Deniz Zungun, Valentin Marian Antohi

ABSTRACT. The field of social economy represents a priority at both national and European level, being a research topic for the academic environment and the subject of a large number of research studies. The topic of the present article presents the size of the social economy sector in Romania and the European Union, highlighting the degree of the social economy concept perception degree among farmers in the north-eastern region of Romania. The research was carried out starting from drawing up a questionnaire, its application and the processing of the obtained data. The Communication from the European Commission on the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative (COM / 2011/0682) defines the main features of social enterprises as the provision of social services and/or goods and services to a vulnerable population, i.e. the professional integration of people with employment difficulties. According to COM/2011, working hypotheses were formulated in line with these elements, which allowed the identification of the degree of connection between the variables underlying their drafting: the age of respondents, the socially vulnerable people employment policy, the field of activity, the social responsibility area, the acceptability degree of agricultural social cooperatives, the development of local communities. The results of the research revealed a strong association between the analysed variables, validating the proposed assumptions.

KEYWORDS:  social economy, agricultural producers, social agricultural cooperatives, The North-East Development Region of Romania.

JEL classification:  A13, F63, L31, M14.