SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL ENTERPRISES: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS.

Purpose: The aim of the article is to identify the key research areas addressed in scientific discussions simultaneously addressing the issues of social enterprises and sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach: To achieve the declared research aim, a structured literature review method was used to explore the Scopus database. As a result, through a Q1 query, 531 unique scientific papers from the period 2000-2022 were generated for bibliometric analysis in the VOSviewer software. The discussion was additionally supported by conclusions drawn from a classic literature review within the scientific papers identified for this study. Findings: Social enterprises, like other business entities operating in the market, face the need to implement solutions aimed at sustainable development in their operations. Hence, the question of how such specific entreprises should implement the ideas of sustainable development while maintaining the continuity of their social mission, which is the process of inclusion of socially and professionally excluded people, is increasingly raised in the literature. The indicated analyses showed that the issue of social enterprises is discussed in the context of numerous areas related to the issue of sustainable development. In terms of these areas, a special place is given to the role of social enterprises in the process of striving to achieve certain sustainable development goals, or the issue of sustainable entrepreneurship. Based on the latter area, more and more researchers of the subject distinguish two new categories of social enterprises which are sustainable social enterprises and green social enterprises. Research limitations/implications: The analyses were limited to the Scopus database. The Q1 query used is, however, of universal character, which means that it can be used in the scope of other databases after possible changes in the form of valid queries (primarily, after adjusting the characters formulating the query). The results obtained based on other bibliometric databases, despite the identical query, may be different, which is due to the issue of indexing individual scientific journals in them. Hence, the results obtained may be a source for other researchers to compare the research results obtained by them on an identical or similar bibliometric query. Practical implications: The ongoing transformation of social enterprises under the impact of the idea of sustainable development is already being observed. This process is an inevitable direction for the development of social enterprises and, at the same time, may involve additional costs (depending, among other things, on the size and type of activities carried out by individual social enterprises), of which those managing these entities should be aware. Hence, already now those responsible for managing social enterprises should initiate changes in this direction, which should take place gradually, so that this kind of transformation does not take place at the cost of the social services provided. Originality/value: The article presents the results of the bibliometric analyses undertaken. Based on the author's keywords, the key research areas addressed in the analyzed scientific publications dealing simultaneously with the issues of social enterprises and sustainable development are indicated. Using overlay visualization, the change in interest over time in particular research areas in the context of the discussed issues from the researchers was highlighted. The performed classical literature review in terms of the author's keywords used, in turn, showed that one of the future directions of research in the context of transformation under the influence of the idea of sustainable development of social enterprises is the issue of the process of greening of such entities. The indicated observed direction of research, in the author's opinion, will play an increasingly important place in the literature on the subject. As a result, researchers will increasingly pay attention to at least the issue of green social enterprises. The article is addressed to all those interested in the issues of social enterprises and their gradual transformation under the influence of the idea of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]