Nascent Social Entrepreneurs Research Articles

Inspiring role model and compassion in nascent social entrepreneurs: does education matter?

ABSTRACT The study examines the influence of inspiring role model (IRM), social entrepreneurship (SE) compassion, and the SE education and their interactions and consequences for nascent SE behaviour. Utilizing a quantitative survey approach, the study acquired a total of 136 valid responses from nascent social entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia. The data analysis through partial least square structural equation modelling (SmartPLS 3.0) revealed that IRM exposure has an impact on nascent SE behaviour, and that SE compassion is a valid predictor of nascent SE behaviour. SE education was observed to have an indirect impact on nascent SE behaviour through SE compassion, while its direct effects on nascent SE behaviour were not proven. Meanwhile, SE compassion was determined to not be a mediator of the effects of IRM on nascent SE behaviour. The study generates several academic and managerial implications while providing a framework for furthering research on SE behaviour.

Cultural Dimensions and Motivations of Social Entrepreneurship Engagement

Social Entrepreneurship (S.E.) is an entrepreneurial activity that answers unsolved social problems (Austin et al., 2006). The study's primary purpose is to measure the perception of Nascent Social Entrepreneurs' motivations of Germak & Robinsons (2013) and Hofstede's (2001) Cultural Dimensions in their engagement with social entrepreneurship. The participants of the study are the Nascent Social Entrepreneurs. They participated in the IGNITE Program of the Center for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE) of the University of San Carlos (USC), Global Social Benefits Institute (GSBI) of Miller Center, and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Incorporated (RAFI). The data gathering was during the five (5) monthly workshop series; the researcher utilized a self-administered questionnaire derived from the scientific literature and pre-tested with Cronbach Alpha to determine the internal consistency of the constructs in the variables. Multiple Regression Analysis was used to predict the relationship between the cultural dimensions towards the motivation of Social Enterprise Engagement. The study found that only Femininity, High Tolerance for Risk, and Low Power Distance cultural backgrounds influence motivation toward Social Entrepreneurship Engagement.

Whom to Ask for Feedback: Insights for Resource Mobilization From Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurs need resources to develop their organizations and catalyze social impact. Existing research focuses on how social entrepreneurs access and use resources, yet it neglects how they search for resource holders. This issue is particularly salient in social entrepreneurs’ decisions about whom to approach for interpersonal feedback as a valuable resource. The current literature offers lists of individuals whom social entrepreneurs approach for feedback and implies these individuals can be easily accessed. Thus, it offers little insight into how social entrepreneurs select whom to approach for feedback and why, or why they struggle to access feedback. We conducted an in-depth inductive study based on 82 interviews with 36 nascent social entrepreneurs to investigate how they search for and select individuals to approach for feedback within and outside their social networks through an iterative appraisal process. Our findings start to open the black box of searching for resource holders in the resource mobilization process and offer insights on power and stigma in social entrepreneurship.

Mediating Role of Prosocial Motivation in Predicting Social Entrepreneurial Intentions

The aim of this research study to identify the role of empathy, moral judgement and social entrepreneurial education in predicting social entrepreneurial intention. And also test the mediating effect of prosocial motivation in this relationship. Through the survey, primary sample data of 755 nascent social entrepreneurs were used to test the hypotheses. The hypothesised moderated mediation condition was supported as results suggest that prosocial motivation mediated the relationship between antecedents and social entrepreneurial intentions. Besides this social entrepreneurial education showed a strong direct relationship with social entrepreneurial intentions. These findings strengthen the argument which states that there is a great need from policy, educators and universities to start courses that can imbibe the feeling of empathy. And also support system to motivates students to go for social entrepreneurship as a career choice.

A MULTILEVEL PERSPECTIVE OF NASCENT SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR DISENGAGEMENT

Each year, a significant number of grant programs select, award, and support young social entrepreneurs. However, not all can bring their ideas to fruition; many nascent entrepreneurs terminate their efforts before launching the business. Determining why some individuals continue while others disengage is critical to understanding the entrepreneurial process. This study explores factors affecting nascent social entrepreneurs' decisions to disengage. We interviewed 18 social entrepreneurs who intended to start a social venture but decided to terminate the process. The findings suggest that macro-, meso-, and micro-level factors influence nascent social entrepreneurs’ decisions to disengage.

How Do Nascent Social Entrepreneurs Respond to Rewards? A Field Experiment on Motivations in a Grant Competition

We conducted a field experiment to identify the causal effect of extrinsic reward cues on the sorting and performance of nascent social entrepreneurs. The experiment, carried out with one of the United Kingdom’s largest support agencies for social entrepreneurs, encouraged 431 nascent social entrepreneurs to submit a full application for a grant competition that provides cash and in-kind mentoring through a one-time mailing sent by the agency. The applicants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: one group received a standard mailing that emphasized the intrinsic incentives of the program, or the opportunity to do good (Social treatment), and the other two groups received a mailing that instead emphasized the extrinsic incentives—either the financial reward (Cash treatment) or the in-kind reward (Support treatment). Our results show that an emphasis on extrinsic incentives has a causal impact on sorting into the applicant pool: the extrinsic reward cues led fewer candidates to apply and “crowded out” the more prosocial candidates while “crowding in” the more money-oriented ones. The extrinsic reward cues also increased application effort, which led these candidates to be more successful in receiving the grant. Yet the selection resulting from the extrinsic incentive cues led to worse performance at the end of the one-year grant period. Our results highlight the critical role of intrinsic motives in the selection and performance of social enterprises and suggest that using extrinsic incentives to promote the development of successful social enterprises may backfire in the longer run. This paper was accepted by Toby Stuart, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Organizing for Hybridity: The Role of Self-Interest Motivations in Social Venture Creation

Prior research has emphasized entrepreneurs’ prosocial motivation as a trigger for social entrepreneurial action. However, social entrepreneurs also possess self-interest motivations which can impact new social venture creation and the organizing for hybridity with regard to social and economic logics. We report on the findings of an inductive study drawing on interviews with 52 nascent social entrepreneurs and secondary data to explore their motivation and organizing for hybridity. First, we identify specific types of self-interest motivations. Second, we develop a process model of how these self-interest motivations manifest in distinct venture missions that lead to dynamic hybrid organizing. We provide a novel understanding of (1) the role of self-interest motivations in social venture creation, (2) the interplay of individual motivations and venture-level outcomes, and (3) the dynamic development of social ventures’ hybrid organizing.

An Empirical Investigation on the Psychological Antecedents of Social Entrepreneurship

Abstract Despite the growing phenomenon of social entrepreneurship, the existing literature has limited quantitative findings on its determinants. This study examines the psychological origins of social entrepreneurial behavior based on the motivated information processing theory. Our structural equation modeling analysis of 179 nascent social entrepreneurs in South Korea indicates the indirect effects of prosocial motivation on social enterprise creation behavior through perceived meaningfulness and social entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Our findings empirically identify the cognitive mechanisms between prosocial motivation and social entrepreneurial behavior. Also, the results of this research complement the existing scholarly conversations that compare the motives of social entrepreneurs with those of commercial entrepreneurs.

New Insights on Social Entrepreneurship and Hybridity from the SEFORΪS Project

Management and organizational researchers (George, Howard-Grenville, Joshi, & Tihanyi, 2016 for a review) have taken a strong interest in ‘grand societal challenges’ – that is, persistent social issues that often concern marginalized actors in society. Social enterprises are organizations that typically work to address such persistent societal issues from social exclusion, poverty to environmental degradation through engaging in market-based activities (Mair & Marti, 2006). Yet social enterprises also encounter challenges through being hybrids and anchored both in social welfare and economic logics (Battilana & Lee, 2014). The papers in this symposium interrogate hybridity in organizing, its outcomes and antecedents including those lying with the individual founding, managing and leading a social enterprise as well as those relating to organizational strategies and contexts. Specifically, they look at the questions such as (i) How different motives of nascent social entrepreneurs affect success? (ii) Are all the social entrepreneurs ‘change-makers’ or are there other distinct value profiles that exemplify social enterprise managers? (iii) What explains differences in beneficiary/customer orientation and governance practices among social enterprises, and when and why do these differences matter to organizational outcomes? and (iv) What drives success in cross-sector partnerships in which social enterprises are involved? To answer these questions, the papers rely on novel experimental, large-scale, cross- country comparable survey and granular case-study evidence on social enterprises. Do Nascent Social Entrepreneurs Respond to Rewards? Motivations in a Grant Competition Presenter: Ina Ganguli; Harvard U. Presenter: Marieke Huysentruyt; HEC Paris Presenter: Chloé Le Coq; Stockholm School of Economics-SITE The Value of Values in Understanding the Distinctiveness and Heterogeneity of Social Enterprises Presenter: Ute Stephan; Aston Business School Presenter: Johanna Mair; Hertie School of Governance Presenter: Marieke Huysentruyt; HEC Paris Performance of Social Enterprises: A Configurational Analysis of Customer/Beneficiary Orientation Presenter: Tomislav Rimac; ESCI-Pompeu Fabra U. Unpacking Hybridity: Organizational and Institutional Antecedents of Social Enterprise Governance Presenter: Johanna Mair; Hertie School of Governance Presenter: Nikolas Rathert; Hertie School of Governance Cross-sector Cooperation Through a Serlean Lens: The Case of Swedish Social Enterprises Presenter: Bogdan Prokopovych; U. of Massachusetts, Amherst Presenter: Clara My Lernborg; Stockholm School of Economics Presenter: Davis Plotnieks; SITE, Stockholm School of Economics

Mission Orientation, Institutional Voids and the Support Needs of Social Entrepreneurs

Over the last few decades, support for nascent social entrepreneurs has increased drastically. The new support infrastructure often uses the same instruments as for commercial entrepreneurs. However, little is known about what support social entrepreneurs actually need and whether these needs vary for different types of entrepreneurs and institutional contexts. This paper explores the support needs of nascent social entrepreneurs. Reflecting the ongoing debate on the nature of social entrepreneurship, it presents hypotheses for two types of actors: “mission-first” entrepreneurs (vs. commercial entrepreneurs) and “hybrid entrepreneurs” (vs. entrepreneurs with one dominant value creation goal). The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 833 nascent entrepreneurs in 31 countries. The results indicate that the level of support needed depends on the type of social entrepreneur in question. The needs of mission-first entrepreneurs largely resemble those of commercial entrepreneurs. Hybrid entrepreneurs, on the other hand, require more direct support, access to networks and field-building support. Also, findings show that institutional voids increase support needs for all types of entrepreneurs. However, hybrid entrepreneurs require less additional support than other types of entrepreneurs when operating in countries with weak rule of law. Overall, the findings show that the support needs of social entrepreneurs are contingent on their mission orientation and their institutional context.

The Composition and Dynamics of Credibility: What Entrepreneurs Value in Feedback Sources

Emerging research highlights the role of entrepreneurs' interpersonal feedback seeking as a micro-foundation of entrepreneurial action. Entrepreneurs seek feedback from diverse individuals, from community leaders to peers and customers. Yet, beyond generic lists of whom entrepreneurs ask for feedback, these feedback sources are largely taken for granted or ignored. The current approach of merely listing feedback sources offers little insight into why entrepreneurs seek feedback from some individuals and not from others, why they may seek feedback from different types of individuals in similar situations, and why they may not seek feedback at all. But how do entrepreneurs decide whom to ask for feedback? What do they value in particular feedback sources? We conducted an in-depth inductive study with 39 nascent social entrepreneurs to address these questions. The results informed a new conceptual framework of the credibility of feedback sources. This framework conceptualises credibility as a composite of feedback source and relational characteristics, and highlights dynamics across situations and over time. The findings advance our understanding of entrepreneurs' interpersonal feedback seeking in particular and contribute to a deeper understanding of entrepreneurship as a process that is socially embedded and unfolds dynamically over time.

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2015 to 2016: Special Topic Report on Social Entrepreneurship

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2015 to 2016: Special Topic Report on Social Entrepreneurship

Early Challenges of Nascent Social Entrepreneurs

Social entrepreneurs are celebrated as transformational leaders whose accomplishments create opportunities for those less fortunate. However, little is known about the early stages of social enterprise development. This study focuses on how a nascent entrepreneur's prosocial motivation affects the progress in building a new venture. Results show that prosocial motivation decreases the likelihood of firm emergence within a 4–year follow–up period, and even more so when the product offering of the emerging venture is new to the markets. These findings are discussed in the light of previous research on prosocial motivation, social entrepreneurship, market novelty, and nascent entrepreneurship.

Exploring the Motivation of Nascent Social Entrepreneurs

Social entrepreneurship (SE) is an increasingly popular practice in which business solutions are applied to social problems. While empirical study of the various facets of SE is on the rise, the motivation of social entrepreneurs – a key antecedent of SE – has received little attention. In contrast, substantial theoretical and empirical work exists on the motivation of commercial entrepreneurs as well as the motivation for public–social sector work. Seeking to fill a gap in the SE literature, this paper presents qualitative findings from in-person, in-depth interviews with self-identified nascent social entrepreneurs that participated in an SE training program in the USA. The findings provide an empirical foundation for further theory development and research on SE motivation.

The Enabling and Constraining Effects of Network Ties on Institutional Entrepreneurship

Reconciling how institutional entrepreneurs both work to shape, and are shaped by, their broader environment remains a significant challenge to institutional scholars. We seek to help untangle this paradox by applying a social network perspective to the initial opportunity creation process of institutional change. Using a multi-stage iterative approach, we collected data from nascent social entrepreneurs within four different regions of China. Within the Chinese environment, addressing social needs remains widely viewed as the responsibility of the Communist government rather than private entities, and as such, the act of establishing a social enterprise is often seen as deviant behavior. Our findings suggest that bonding ties largely work to constrain institutional entrepreneurship while bridging ties are more supportive in nature. However, our data also suggest that the sequencing in which different types of ties are contacted, and the extent to which proto-institutions are pre-existing within the envir...