Purpose – This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the understanding of politicians about social entrepreneurship and its ecosystem. These findings are contrasted with the needs and wishes of social entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach – The research used a qualitative research approach. We conducted in-depths interviews with entrepreneurs, politicians, and high-level responsible administrators responsible persons of eight European countries. Data analysis covers pattern matching and case comparison. Findings – The findings revealed that the politicians surveyed had a lack of awareness of social entrepreneurship in many countries. There is a clear mismatch of the reported needs and wishes of interviewed social entrepreneurs and the statements from the politicians. Originality/value – This research demonstrates the mismatch of the needs of social entrepreneurs and the awareness of politicians.

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The creation of the resource has been (partially) funded by the ERASMUS+ grant program of the European Union under grant no. 2014-1-DE01-KA203-00624. Neither the European Commission nor the project's national funding agency DAAD are responsible for the content or liable for any losses or damage resulting from the use of this resource.
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@article{urn:nbn:de:hebis:34-2017101653572,
  author    ={Zulauf, Katrin and Zink, Lisa and Wagner, Ralf and Sanchez Bengoa, Dolores and Kaufmann, Hans-Rüdiger and Cubero Dudinskaya, Emilia and Hagen, Birgit and Trevisan, Italo and Ganassali, Stephane and Papp, Judit and Rajala, Arto and Van Berkel, Johan and Van der Veen, Gerrita and Hermannsdóttir, Auður},
  title    ={Report for Politicians},
  copyright  ={https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/},
  language ={en},
  year   ={2017}
}