Aspiring to Be a Social Entrepreneur: Does Prosocial Motivation Matter?

Abstract

Despite the significant role played by social entrepreneurship in helping to address social problems, entrepreneurship research has focused less on this specific topic. Even fewer researches have examined factors that may influence social entrepreneurial intention. In this chapter, we draw on the motivated information processing theory to explain why and when prosocial motivation may lead to social entrepreneurial intention. We also show the important role played by aspiring entrepreneurs’ intrinsic motivation in explaining the relationship between prosocial motivation and social entrepreneurial intention. We explain how prior experience with social problems and social entrepreneurial self-efficacy might influence social entrepreneurial intention as well as strengthen the effect of intrinsic motivation on social entrepreneurial intention.