ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins with the conversation on the side of the practitioners. The selected cases are located in structurally disadvantaged rural areas in Ireland, Greece, Austria and Poland. The case descriptions represent a reconstruction of the cases’ self-picture as a social enterprise along the lines of the three EMES dimensions of social enterprises, namely the social mission, the entrepreneurial mission, and the governance structure. The book examines the Strategic Action Field Theory to explore the field positioning strategies of our case organizations. An initial step is to understand the particular configuration of fields in which the organizational case studies are embedded. Positioning represents a longer-term strategy of actors and is also triggered by events in the external environment. The book discusses the practitioners respond to the findings of the single- and cross-case analysis.
