Second Acts: Giving Back through Social and Serial Entrepreneurship

Abstract

The last two decades have seen increasing calls for commercial enterprises to create value beyond that which can be captured by their shareholders. While effective approaches to generating stakeholder value at the organization level are increasingly well-understood, relatively little empirical research examines the factors that influence how direct social impact can be generated at the individual level, i.e., by private sector founders, managers, and employees acting outside their corporate affiliations. The papers in this symposium address this gap through two lenses. First, they explore how individual-level characteristics, either formed in early life or developed through earlier career experiences, shape entrepreneurs’ choices about how to create public and/or private value at a later stage in their careers. Second, they focus on critical events in the entrepreneurial process and examine how they facilitate action-taking by individuals with philanthropic preferences to make social impact. Collectively, the papers in this symposium highlight different pathways on which entrepreneurs might embark at an advanced stage in their careers to create value beyond their current for-profit entrepreneurial endeavors, including engaging in philanthropy, and supporting the larger entrepreneurial ecosystem as experienced founders, joiners, and impact investors. Who Gives Back? Evidence from India on Successful Entrepreneurial Exit & Involvement in Philanthropy Presenter: Leena Kinger Hans; Indian School of Business Presenter: Balagopal Vissa; INSEAD Spinning an Entrepreneurial Career: The Role of Motivation & Attribution in Entrepreneurial Careers Presenter: Hyeonsuh Lee; West Virginia U. Presenter: Sonali Shah; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Forming Ties for Impact: Cognitive and Emotional Resonance between Entrepreneurs and Investors Presenter: Esther Leibel; Boston U. Presenter: Denise Falchetti; George Washington U. The Making of Social Entrepreneurs: Big Tech Acquisitions & Founder Mobility into Social Initiatives Presenter: Ming zhu Wang; Washington U. in St. Louis, Olin Business School Presenter: Daniel Walter Elfenbein; Washington U. in St. Louis