The difficult paths to legitimacy of social enterprises in Italy

The creation of new forms of organizations is one of the most often neglected processes through which social movements have an impact on society. The evolution of a form, which has acquired the naming of ‘social enterprise’ marks an important change brought about by active social movements that took place throughout Europe in the latter part of the twentieth century. In this paper, I investigate the evolution of social enterprises in Italy, one of the most active countries in Europe in the realm of non-profit organizations, and propose an original description of the process of legitimation of a new organizational form that departs from prevalent descriptions in evolutionary organizational theory.