Abstract
This article examines the extent to which culturally endorsed transformational leadership theories (CLTs) and the sustainability of society, both considered societal level institutional indicators, impact the emergence of social entrepreneurship. Using 107,738 individual-level responses from 27 countries for the year 2009 obtained from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey, and supplementing with country-level data obtained from Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) and Sustainability Society Foundation (SSF), our findings from multilevel analysis show that transformational CLTs and sustainability conditions of society positively influence the likelihood of individuals becoming social entrepreneurs. Further, the effectiveness of transformational CLTs matters more for social entrepreneurship when the sustainability of society is low, which suggests the interaction between cultural leadership styles and societal sustainability. This article contributes to comparative entrepreneurship research by introducing strong cultural antecedents of social entrepreneurship in transformational CLTs and societal sustainability. We discuss various implications and limitations of our study, and we suggest directions for future research.
Highlights
Social entrepreneurship, which has been viewed as catalytic leadership, brings about social change geared to address societal concerns [1,2,3]
Using the understanding of cultural fit for the emergence of social entrepreneurial leaders [23], we propose that individuals are more likely to choose to become social entrepreneurs in societies where culturally endorsed transformational leadership theories (CLTs) fit with the characteristics of social entrepreneurs and are supportive of the objectives of social entrepreneurship
This study contributes to the research integrating leadership, sustainability, and entrepreneurship lines of enquiry
Summary
Social entrepreneurship, which has been viewed as catalytic leadership, brings about social change geared to address societal concerns [1,2,3]. This form of entrepreneurship is gaining importance as a line of scholarly inquiry [4,5]. Our study explores the role of cultural expectations about ideal leadership and sustainability of society, both societal institutional indicators, in influencing social entrepreneurship. Given that any progress toward sustainable development requires active leadership [17], objectives of social entrepreneurship, our specific question is ‘what is the specific role of leadership in the context of sustainability to predict social entrepreneurial behaviors?’
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