Social Entrepreneurship Literature Research Articles

The Influence of Social Media and Perceived Barriers on Formation of Social Entrepreneurial Intention: A Conceptual Framework

Social entrepreneurship is garnering global attention and emerging as a noteworthy business model. Scholars and practitioners assert that social entrepreneurship is pivotal in addressing and resolving social problems through sustainable solutions. However, evidence suggests that barriers can impede individuals from becoming social entrepreneurs or postpone the decision to initiate a social venture. Furthermore, despite the influential role of social media in shaping general public attitudes and behavior, there is limited attention given to its impact on social entrepreneurship. Consequently, this study employs the theory of planned behavior to create a new framework that incorporates various variables potentially influencing social entrepreneurial intention (SEI). This study contributes to the social entrepreneurship literature by offering new insights into the factors affecting SEI. Beyond advancing theoretical knowledge, it enhances policymakers' understanding of the antecedents of SEI, enabling them to formulate effective policies that encourage suitable individuals to pursue social entrepreneurship.

Doing good while making profits: A typology of business models for social ventures

AbstractResearch SummaryBuilding on business model research and the social entrepreneurship literature, we conceptually develop a set of business model choices for social ventures. These choices specify the scope of venture beneficiaries, the extent that customers and beneficiaries overlap, and how social meaning is attached to the venture's value proposition. Concurrent configurations of these choices give rise to four types of social business models: (1) Social Stimulators, (2) Social Providers, (3) Social Producers, and (4) Social Intermediaries. We illustrate this typology using data from seven social ventures and formulate propositions about the implications these business model choices have for a venture's value creation and value capture potential. We then discuss contributions to the literature on social ventures and social entrepreneurship, and the literature on business models.Managerial SummaryIn this article, we propose a framework outlining key business model choices for social ventures. These choices include the scope of target beneficiaries of the venture, the degree of overlap between customers and beneficiaries, and how the venture communicates its social mission through its value proposition. By combining these choices in different ways, we identify four distinct types of social business models which we call Social Stimulators, Social Providers, Social Producers, and Social Intermediaries. To bring this framework to life, we have examined data from seven real‐world social ventures, offering concrete examples to illustrate each type. For each of these four types of social business models, we have also formulated propositions about how the business model choices impact a venture's value creation and value capture potential.

Match or Mismatch of Expectation-Realization Behind the Motives in Supporting Social Entrepreneurship Programs

Abundant studies regarding motives in social enterprise have been conducted but have barely explored the gaps between motivational expectations and realizations. Particularly in waste bank studies, such a study has yet to be scholarly discussed. Using expectancy theory and mismatch hypotheses, this study explored the motives in waste bank participation towards owners/managers and customers and measured the gaps between the motive expectations and realizations. Quantitative comparison tests were employed on 45 Indonesian waste bank owners/managers and 162 customers whose data were collected directly and through online surveys. The findings reveal that the most expected motive was the environmental, while the least was the economic; this went for both waste bank owners/managers and customers. The results also show that severe mismatches occurred between expectations and realizations, in which the most significant gap for waste bank owners/managers was educational, while the environmental motive was the biggest for customers. This study's findings enrich the social entrepreneurship literature by showing that the motives per se are insufficient to reveal individuals' actual situations in supporting the social programs, as disparities are very likely to occur between expectations and realities. The gap analysis in this study provides a different alternative to conducting studies related to the underlying motives for supporting social entrepreneurship programs.

Social Entrepreneurs as Ecosystem Catalysts: The Dynamics of Forming and Withdrawing from a Self‐Sustaining Ecosystem

AbstractCreating a long‐lasting impact is one of the defining goals of social entrepreneurship. Yet, social entrepreneurs often face a dilemma between sustaining their organization and offering a permanent fix to a social problem. We question the assumption that organizational permanence and growth are intrinsically desirable for social entrepreneurs and propose an alternative, an inductively grounded model of ecosystem leadership, which we term ecosystem catalysis. Through a single case study of social entrepreneurs addressing the lack of access to diarrhoea treatment in Zambia, we conceptualize ecosystem catalysis as a process through which an organization forms an ecosystem around a new value proposition while gradually making itself redundant, ultimately withdrawing from the ecosystem without compromising its functioning. Our work contributes to ecosystem literature by contrasting the key aims and mechanisms of an ecosystem catalyst to those of an orchestrator and identifying the conditions under which catalysing may be a better choice than orchestrating an ecosystem. We contribute to social entrepreneurship literature by decoupling social impact from organizational growth and permanence and presenting a more dynamic model of social impact resulting from distributed contributions in ecosystems.

Bridging Disconnections: Narratives of Collective Social Entrepreneurs on the Energy Poverty Network

The roadmap to a just energy transition faces the challenge of including vulnerable households. The networked nature of energy poverty invites responses from different actors, among them the social entrepreneur. The growing phenomenon of social entrepreneurship holds promise in responding to energy vulnerability due to its collective and hybrid nature, enabling active engagement in addressing this multi-actor problem. This study aims to contribute to the ongoing conversation on collective social entrepreneurship. Specifically, it delves into the experiences of social entrepreneurs who tackle energy poverty from a networked perspective. By analysing narratives from social entrepreneurs addressing energy poverty in Europe, we examine their perceptions of the network and their role in it. We find that the narrative of social entrepreneurship varies depending on the priority given to social aspects, which has implications for the approach towards the network. Framed by the theoretical lens of the multi-actor network, our findings extend the knowledge of the composition and relationships in the network, an approach scarcely addressed in the social entrepreneurship literature. By shedding light on bridging narratives, our findings provide evidence of the potential coordinating role social entrepreneurship can play in fragmented networks addressing grand challenges through its hybrid dimension.

The Myth of the Altruistic University: Lessons From Universities’ Sponsoring of Events

Universities are hybrid organizations, which increasingly embark in entrepreneurial activities as a means of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). These include outreach and community engagement activities such as sponsoring cultural or sporting events. With our conceptual expository argument, taking a multitheoretical approach, we contribute to the event management and social entrepreneurship literatures by examining how and why universities engage in UNSDGs-oriented events. This is important as little is known about how they contribute to the UNSDGs and use events. We question the altruistic assumption underpinning their engagement. Informed by institutional theory and strategic management value-based literature, we explore why they have taken this route and suggest self-interest rather than altruism is driving their decisions to engage in social entrepreneurship. They are value-creating strategies. We argue it is serendipity that many interpret universities??? social entrepreneurship decisions and the events that flow from them as acts of altruism.

Social SME Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Model of Innovativeness in Environmentally Sustainable Social Enterprises

The awareness of the severity of global sustainability challenges has reinforced appeals to harness and leverage alternative business forms and ecologically sustainable innovations to grant future generations the capability to meet their own needs. This paper aims to develop a conceptual model for innovativeness of Environmentally Sustainable Social Enterprises (ESSEs). After undertaking a systematic literature review, a conceptual model including eight dimensions is developed. This is tested by means of a standardized self-completion online questionnaire among ESSEs. The analysis of the quantitative data enabled us to revise the conceptual model. Our findings confirm the multidimensional nature of the innovativeness of ESSEs primarily inferred from the studies by Lawson and Samson (2001), Hogan et al. (2011), and Iddris (2016). The findings of the study provide a contextually insightful and focused understanding of the eco–innovation capability, related to ESSEs. EI literature predominantly focuses on large, profit–maximizing organizations. Less scientific work examines mission-driven SEs as their object of study. Hence, this study bridges the literature of social entrepreneurship, EI, and innovation management.

How do gender attitudes influence the relationships between perceived desirability, perceived feasibility and social entrepreneurial intentions?

PurposeThis study aims to understand how perceived desirability and perceived feasibility influence Portuguese higher education students' social entrepreneurial intention and general entrepreneurial intention and explore how gender attitudes can affect these relationships.Design/methodology/approachThis study's sample comprises 391 participants. The hypotheses formulated in the research model were tested through structural equation modelling, using the bootstrapping method to perform decomposition tests and multigroup analyses to assess the effect of gender on perceived desirability, perceived feasibility and social and general entrepreneurial intention.FindingsThe sample data reveal that women have a greater social entrepreneurial intention, and men have a greater general entrepreneurial intention. The results regarding the research model reveal that perceived desirability positively influences social and general entrepreneurial intention, with stronger relationships for men than for women. However, perceived feasibility positively influences overall entrepreneurial intention but is insignificant in explaining social entrepreneurial intention. When the differences between genders are analysed, the perceived feasibility by women is significant and positively influences the social entrepreneurial intention, not being significant when men are considered. Contrary to previous studies about higher education students, men have a higher perceived desirability in both general and social entrepreneurial intentions, while women have a stronger perceived feasibility in both general and social entrepreneurial intentions.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the development of the social entrepreneurship literature, demonstrating that social entrepreneurial intention can be influenced by gender. The results show the importance of considering the spatial and organisational context in examining the relationships between perceived desirability/perceived feasibility and social entrepreneurial intentions of men and women.

“If you sow goodness, you will reap goodness”: activating social entrepreneurial intentions with karmic beliefs

PurposeAlthough karmic beliefs have been found to be positively correlated with pro-social behaviors, the role of karmic beliefs in social entrepreneurship remains relatively unknown. Drawing on the morally extended theory of planned behavior, this paper aims to explore the karmic aspect of social venturing, wherein individuals’ social entrepreneurial intentions and their moral antecedents are activated by karmic beliefs.Design/methodology/approachThe study was performed on a sample of 401 university students in Vietnam. Cronbach’s alpha, confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical regression analyses were then used to test the reliability, validity of scales and developed hypotheses.FindingsThe findings illustrate that karmic beliefs are strongly and positively correlated with empathy, moral obligation, social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and perceived social support. Moreover, individuals’ social entrepreneurial intentions are not only significantly and directly stimulated by karmic beliefs but also receive the indirect effects of karmic beliefs through three mediators: empathy, moral obligation and social entrepreneurial self-efficacy.Originality/valueThe study added fresh perspectives on the role of karmic beliefs in social entrepreneurship literature. Additionally, this study shed a new light on entrepreneurial literature by morally extending theory of planned behavior to explore underlying mechanisms of moral and empathetic components on transferring the effects of karmic beliefs on social entrepreneurial intentions.

KEY FACTORS AFFECTING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE PERFORMANCE: A LITERATURE REVIEW

This study aims to understand performance of social enterprises and assess the most influential factors affecting this performance based on a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The study extracted data (articles) from three prominent databases (Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar). Four main determinant groups of performance are identified, namely, technology and innovation, investment considerations, overall organization orientation and a general category of other influential factors. The results indicate that fiscal, environmental, social contexts, creative methods and employee contributions have a major influence on the performance of social enterprises. It was also revealed that strategic and business orientation has proven to be a significant contributor as well. The findings contribute to social entrepreneurship literature in terms of performance improvement of hybrid enterprises. Future research suggestions are provided based on the findings.

Crowdfunding for social ventures

PurposeSocial ventures have been reported to have a hard time obtaining funding. A growing number of social ventures have used crowdfunding as a viable alternative fundraising tool. This paper aims to investigate among social ventures, what makes some more successful than others in crowdfunding.Design/methodology/approachTheoretically, this study builds upon three streams of literature: nonprofit fundraising literature, crowdfunding literature and social entrepreneurship literature. Empirically, it obtains data with a novel Web-crawling approach from the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform and analyzes them with a variety of statistical modeling.FindingsThis study finds that social ventures that have greater internal resources including team size and venture age, stronger partnerships with other entities and more frequent communications with backers via social media and updates have a higher tendency to successfully raise funds from the crowd than those social ventures that do not.Originality/valueThis study seeks to understand social ventures’ crowdfunding performance and identify the specific factors that have led some social ventures to be more successful than other social ventures. It builds a novel data set and uses different statistical models to explore the intersection of social entrepreneurship and digital crowdfunding. In addition, this study provides actionable strategies for social ventures to improve their crowdfunding performance while providing practical implications for increasing people’s knowledge of and participation in social entrepreneurship through education and public policy. Overall, this study contributes to both social entrepreneurship and crowdfunding literature while offering practical implications.

Social entrepreneurship in agri-food systems: the case of food hubs

Abstract Food hubs are nascent organizational innovations in local and regional food systems. Although the number of food hubs in the U.S. has grown over the past decade, their purpose in the food system is still debated. There is a lack of clarity in whether food hubs primarily pursue a social mission, economic value creation, or both simultaneously. To better understand the purpose of food hubs in the food system, this study draws from social entrepreneurship literature and examines the entrepreneurial processes by which food hubs were formed. By employing a comparative case study research method, the study examines four food hubs with different organizational models in the U.S. state of Michigan. The results show that food hubs are social enterprises aimed to simultaneously create social and economic value. Social value proposition, however, can be multifaceted and differs by food hub type. The key differences in food hub models stem from their legal business status, markets they serve, scope and scale of both mobilized resources and economic activities in ‘farm to fork’ supply chains.

Empathy-driven entrepreneurial action: Well-being outcomes for entrepreneurs and target beneficiaries

Empathy is a primary driver of social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial action. However, empathizing individuals can arrive at different conclusions about what targets need. This variance in entrepreneurs' empathy for targets is important because it will help explain the type of interventions they initiate to help targets and the production of a range of benefits and costs for the targets and the entrepreneur. This study builds on and extends the theory of empathic interpersonal emotion regulation to construct an empathy-driven entrepreneurial-action model of well-being. We explore how an entrepreneur's empathy orientation for entrepreneurial action—the patterned way entrepreneurs focus their attention on a target's problems and then seek to enact this position through entrepreneurial action to help the target—shapes the organizing of an entrepreneurial intervention and the likely outcomes. We theorize entrepreneurial orientation of entrepreneurial action manifests as a hedonic paternalistic, counterhedonic, paternalistic, hedonic cooperative, or counter-hedonic cooperative. This empathy-driven entrepreneurial-action model of well-being contributes to the social entrepreneurship literature and inter-personal theories of empathy.

Creating Social Ventures: How Social Motivations and Goals Drive Venture Idea Judgments

Research on the formation of prosocial ventures has attracted substantial interest in the field of social entrepreneurship for more than a decade. Yet, the understanding of how prosocial founders use judgments for the assessment of opportunity-related information to create prosocial ventures remains relatively unexamined. We conducted an abductive, qualitative study with 34 first-time founders using verbal protocols and content analysis techniques to explore how founders with ‘other-oriented’ social identities judge venture ideas in contrast to founders with ‘me-oriented’ social identities. As a result, we theorise a model which reveals how the motivation and subjective goals of prosocial founders influence their venture idea judgments and meaning-making processes. We contribute to the social entrepreneurship literature by displaying how founders with social goal-motivations gain opportunity confidence through their choice of judgement criteria during opportunity evaluation.

Understanding the impact of learning orientation and the mediating role of new product development capability on social enterprises' performances

PurposeSocial enterprises (SEs) offer a unique context as they have the challenge of finding solutions that not only improve their economic performance but also their social performance, simultaneously. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether learning orientation and new product development capability can support SEs to enhance both their economic and social performances.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative research design has been employed and data have been collected from a sample of 164 SEs in the UK.FindingsThe findings of this study illustrate that if SEs want to enhance their economic performance, they should ensure that learning orientation leads to new product development capability. Otherwise, learning orientation cannot improve their economic performance. However, surprisingly, learning orientation can impact SEs' performance not only by developing new product development capability but also by having a direct impact on their social performance.Originality/valueThis article contributes to the social entrepreneurship literature by illustrating the role of learning orientation and new product development capability in enhancing the economic as well as the social performance of SEs.

Too emotional to succeed: entrepreneurial narratives in a prosocial setting

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the effectiveness of cognitive and emotional appeals to mobilize resources in prosocial crowdfunding settings that combine the creation of economic and social value.Design/methodology/approachThe authors quantitatively measure the effectiveness of cognitive and emotional appeals in the entrepreneurial narratives of 2,098 entrepreneurs from 55 countries shared via the Kiva platform by performing multiple regression analysis.FindingsThe findings suggest that using cognitive appeals can attract more resources than using emotional appeals. In fact, using affective language in general, and negative emotion words specifically, can be detrimental and attract fewer resources.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship literature by linking insights from the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion and motivational framing to understand resource mobilization in prosocial settings. This study demonstrates that cognitive and emotional appeals could lead to different outcomes in contexts where entrepreneurial narratives are all framed as “doing good” and individuals allocating resources are highly socially motivated.

Pathways to social value and social change: An integrative review of the social entrepreneurship literature

AbstractSocial entrepreneurship has emerged as an important means of addressing grand challenges. Although research on the topic has accelerated, scholars have yet to articulate an overarching framework that links the different pathways taken by social entrepreneurs with the positive effects of these efforts. To address this shortcoming, we conducted a systematic literature review which enabled us to conceptually differentiate between social value and social change as distinct outcomes of social entrepreneurship and identify seven pathways for achieving these outcomes. Building on our analysis, we outline a research agenda for questions pertaining to: the dynamics between social value and social change; how contextual factors and social entrepreneurs influence various pathways; design principles of business models and innovations that facilitate social value and social change; and defining, measuring, and ensuring accountability for social value and social change.

Analysis and evaluation of albergo diffuso as sustainable business model

Social entrepreneurship literature continuously emphasizes the need for innovations in business models as businesses gain more importance in achievement of sustainable development. However, there is a lack of practical examples of sustainable business models which prevents their faster adoption among entrepreneurs. This paper analyzes and evaluates alternative hospitality model - Albergo diffuso which is by many authors considered to be an example of sustainable business model. Albergo diffuso is used for tourism restart and revitalization of rural areas as it recovers old buildings, creates new jobs, involves local farmers and entrepreneurs in value creation network and preserves local traditions. This paper applied qualitative research approach to analyze the business model of Croatian Albergo diffuso ‘Ražnjevića dvori’ using the semi-structured interviews. Tourism is of huge importance for economies around the world but at the same time it produces a lot of negative environmental and social impacts on local communities. Therefore, sustainable innovation, especially in business models, is needed to achieve sustainable development of tourism. This research showed that Albergo diffuso can be regarded as a sustainable business model because it creates sustainable value, includes stakeholders in the value network and establishes mutual value flows and thirdly internalizes negative environmental and social externalities. Researchers conclude that with small adjustments, Albergo diffuso as sustainable business model could contribute to sustainable tourism development. However, conclusions cannot be generalized due to limitations of the study that include small research sample and application on single case and further research is required.

Analysing the Factors Influencing the Internationalisation of Social Entrepreneurship: A Study of Internationalised Social Businesses from Bangladesh

Social businesses (SB) have significant relevance as they create social impact through revenue-generating business models. The current study is intended to contribute to social entrepreneurship literature by identifying the factors that can influence social business in the internationalisation process from a developing country context, Bangladesh. The research utilised the qualitative approach to extract the required information from the selected ten (10) business cases. MAXQDA software was used to generate the required codes and categories. From the findings, three broad categories of factors have been identified that influence internationalisation: firm-centric, entrepreneur-specific, and context-specific factors related to home and host country environments. The study determined that the firm’s capabilities, such as designing technological apps and platforms to provide essential health, education, and medical services, contribute to internationalisation. In addition, the research identified the adaptation of the business model as one of the determinants of SB internationalisation. Some adaptation practices include maintaining hybrid logic, adopting social franchising model, value delivery, and value capture processes through partnership with for-profit organisations in host countries. The findings of this study are expected to be useful for academicians and also for the social entrepreneurs willing to take their enterprises to the international market level.

Bibliometrics of social entrepreneurship research: Cocitation and bibliographic coupling analyses

The purpose of this paper is to provide conceptual structure, explore current research directions, and suggest emerging trends in social entrepreneurship. The authors ultilize co-citation analysis as well as bibliographic coupling analysis to analyze 1122 social entrepreneurship publications thought VOS Viewer software. Co-citation analysis was used to explore the structure of the research topic, while bibliographic coupling analysis was used to identify potential research topics. Based on themes from co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling analysis, the authors compared similarities and differences between themes to explore potential research groups in SE, for instance, hybrid organizations, social value creation, dimensions, and measurement of social goals. This is the first study using co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling analysis to review publications related to social entrepreneurship. This research study contributes to the social entrepreneurship literature by enhancing the understanding of the structures in social entrepreneurship through citations, as well as can be employed to support scholars in other for recognizing future research directions.