Economic and Social Performance Evaluation of the Two Types of Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) in Greece: Mental Health Sector’s WISEs Versus Social Entrepreneurs’ WISEs

The main objective of the present study was to explore the differences in the economic and social performance of the two institutional types of work integration social enterprises (WISEs) in Greece. The social performance of Greek WISEs was linked with their ability to create job positions that are sufficient to keep the employees above the monetary poverty line and away from the concept of low work intensity as defined in the European Union. Primary data were collected from 51.47% of the population of Greek WISEs. Descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, and ordinal regression analysis were used for the exploration of the differences between the two types of WISEs considering economic and social performance. Despite the significant differences in most of the economic measures, the social performance of both institutional types of WISEs in Greece in tackling poverty is almost identical and unfortunately low. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study comparing the social performance of the two institutional types of Greek WISEs. Our information, analysis, and suggestions could be important to policymakers, stakeholders, managers and professionals. Locating the paths and the methods that lead WISEs to the creation of job positions that are close to the concept of full-time and are also fairly well paid, can only be positively related to their goal of promoting the financial independence of users of mental health services along others vulnerable and special social groups.