How Social Entrepreneurs’ Inner Realities Shape Value Creation

Abstract

This paper empirically examines how social entrepreneurs’ inner realities – thoughts, feelings, self-awareness – shape the entrepreneurial value creation process. A qualitative research design was used to induce theory. Evidence shows social entrepreneurs engaged in practices that increased awareness of both positive and negative aspects of their inner realities. Positive aspects tended to enable generative value creation mechanisms and lead to positive social/environmental outcomes; negative aspects tended to interfere and lead to unintended negative outcomes. Key contributions include a fuller picture of the value creation process from multiple levels – individual, enterprise, wider environment – while considering social entrepreneurs’ exterior and interior dimensions.