Necessary conditions for social enterprise: The case of the microinsurance sector

Purpose
The aim of the paper is to identify the institutional factors in a country that are necessary conditions for social entrepreneurship, as opposed to sufficient factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing the relatively new method of Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) and a proprietary database on microinsurance providers, we examine the level of microinsurance provision relative to the population size in 54 countries in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
Findings
We find that high levels of religiosity and poverty in the country are necessary conditions for a high level of microinsurance enterprises, while conventional institutional development measures such as uneven economic development and state fragility show only low to medium levels of necessity.
Limitations
The study is limited by the paucity of data on microinsurance in different countries worldwide.
Implications
The findings have both theoretical and practical implications about the types of institutional factors that are necessary for a high level of microinsurance social enterprises in a country, highlighting the need to look beyond formal economic and political institutional factors and the need to consider informal institutional factors such as religion.
Contribution
We contribute to the research literature on social enterprises by highlighting the key conditions in a country that are necessary for a high level of microinsurance social enterprises.