Abstract
Social enterprises, as a new form of organization where public welfare and business coexist, are gradually becoming an important power in innovating social governance. However, the development of social enterprises in China is still in its infancy. Social entrepreneurs have a profound impact on the growth of social enterprises and may bring advantages to the development of enterprises, while barriers to legitimacy commonly faced by social enterprises hinder the development of the enterprise to some extent. Social enterprise performance has always been a research focus in social entrepreneurship, on which many studies have been reported, while it is seldom investigated from the perspective of entrepreneurial traits. The research aims to clarify how entrepreneurial traits influence the growth of social enterprises in an institutional scenario. Taking 208 social enterprises in China as samples, the relationship among entrepreneurial traits, relational capital, cognitive legitimacy, and social enterprise performance was verified using SPSS 22.0 and methods including correlation analysis and regression analysis based on trait theory and relational capital theory. The results indicate that: (1) entrepreneurial traits exert a significant positive effect on both the economic and social performance of social enterprises; (2) relational capital plays a mediating effect between entrepreneurial traits and social enterprise performance; (3) cognitive legitimacy only positively regulates the relationship between relational capital and economic performance. The conclusions may enrich the theory of traits and provide new ideas allowing social enterprises to overcome the dilemma of resource constraints and improve their performance. Social entrepreneurs need to pay close attention to cultivating their entrepreneurial traits and actively establishing relational capital; governments should create an institutional environment conducive to social entrepreneurship, to promote improvement in social enterprise performance.
Highlights
The emergence of various social problems has promoted the rise in social entrepreneurship [1]
The following hypotheses are proposed: Hypotheses 6 (H6): Relational capital has mediating effects between entrepreneurial traits and economic performance (EP) of social enterprises; Hypotheses 6a (H6a): Relational capital shows mediating effects between empathy and EP of social enterprises; Hypotheses 6b (H6b): Relational capital exerts mediating effects between prior experience and Hypotheses 7 (H7): Relational capital shows mediating effects between entrepreneurial traits and social performance (SP) of social enterprises; Hypotheses 7 (H7a): Relational capital has mediating effects between empathy and SP of social enterprises; Hypotheses 7 (H7b): Relational capital plays a role in mediating prior experience and SP of social enterprises
Cognitive legitimacy is correlated with relational capital, EP, and SP, while it is not correlated with entrepreneurial traits
Summary
The emergence of various social problems has promoted the rise in social entrepreneurship [1]. Social entrepreneurs with different traits follow different ways of thinking and logic when formulating plans, identifying opportunities, and undertaking business management This results in different levels of social enterprise performance and even greatly affects the sustainable development of social enterprises. Whether entrepreneurial traits can improve social enterprise performance by promoting the acquisition of personal relational capital remains to be revealed. Whether policy support can help social entrepreneurs to enrich their relational capital and social network resources to promote the acquisition of good enterprise performance remains to be studied. The effects of entrepreneurial traits on social enterprise performance were verified and the contingency role of cognitive legitimacy in the influences of relational capital on social enterprise performance was studied. The results provide a theoretical basis for social enterprises to break the resourcing dilemma and realize sustainable development, and this research attempts to guide the operation and management of social enterprises and improve social enterprise performance while expanding relevant studies on social enterprises
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