Resumen
The paper presents a comparative analysis of the dominant theoretical concepts and models of social entrepreneurship development in continental Europe and the United States. The initial assumption of the paper was the differences in the model of capitalism that are present in these parts of the world, and the dominant theoretical concepts determine the differences in the form of manifestation of social entrepreneurial activity and the degree of population involvement in its implementation. Empirical research, with the aim of testing this assumption, was conducted on a sample of 50,000 social entrepreneurs from 25 countries. The results showed that there are no significant differences in the degree of involvement of the population in social entrepreneurial activity between Europe and the USA in the initial phase. In the operational phase, there are differences in the degree of involvement of the population in social entrepreneurship between Europe and the USA, but they are also present between Eastern and Western Europe, which means that they are not predominantly conditioned by theoretical concepts and models of social entrepreneurship, but by other factors.