•Examination of the impact of social entrepreneurship orientation (SEO) on the social and financial performance of a sample of 1156 companies.•SEO-financial performance relationship is partially ...positively mediated by social performance even though the direct effect is negative.•Social performance compensates for the otherwise negative effect SEO has directly with financial performance.•Fostering an understanding of the mechanisms by which an SEO affects firm performance.
We examine the impact of social entrepreneurship orientation (SEO), a behavioral measure of the social entrepreneurship of the organization, on the social and financial performance of a sample of Austrian firms. Despite growing research interests in social entrepreneurship, the field remains fragmented and this has led to calls for a careful examination of the implications of social entrepreneurship for firms. We draw on stakeholder theory and hybrid organizing to hypothesize that social performance mediates the SEO-financial performance relationship. By analyzing a sample of 1,156 companies, we find that the SEO-financial performance relationship is partially positively mediated by social performance even though the direct effect is negative. Our results show that social performance compensates for the otherwise negative effect SEO has directly with financial performance. We contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms by which an SEO affects firm performance and provide richer insights into the various aspects of performance. We discuss the future implications of our study and suggest promising avenues for further research on the SEO construct.
This study explores the emergence of a new entrepreneurship phenomenon (digital social entrepreneurship) as a result of the collaboration among many agents (N-Helix), given the government’s limited ...capacity to respond to the stakeholders’ needs satisfaction related to an exogenous event (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Our theory development is based on three ongoing academic debates related to (a) the unrepresentativeness of
the stakeholder theory
in entrepreneurship research; (b) the emergence of
digital social entrepreneurship
(DSE) as a bridge between stakeholders’ needs, socio-economic actors, and digital-social initiatives; and (c) the role of
N-Helix
collaborations to facilitate the emergence of global knowledge-intensive initiatives and the rapid adoptions of open innovations. Our results support our assumptions about the positive mediation effect of DSE in the relationship between N-Helix collaborations and stakeholders’ satisfaction. Notably, results show how pandemic has intensified these relationships and how DSE in N-Helix collaborations can generate social impacts globally. Some implications for policy-makers have emerged from our results that should be considered during/post-COVID-19 pandemic.
This article tests the model proposed by Mair and Noboa (2006) who identify four antecedents which they suggest predict social entrepreneurial intentions. The study extends the model by including ...prior experience with social problems as an additional variable. Findings show that prior experience predicts social entrepreneurial intentions. This effect is mediated by the antecedents suggested by Mair and Noboa. Social entrepreneurial self–efficacy has both the largest impact on intentions as well as being itself most responsive to prior experience. Lastly, the study shows that the amount of optional social entrepreneurship electives students enroll in is predicted by social entrepreneurial intentions.
Social entrepreneurship has been the subject of considerable interest in the literature. This stems from its importance in addressing social problems and enriching communities and societies. In this ...article, we define social entrepreneurship; discuss its contributions to creating social wealth; offer a typology of entrepreneurs' search processes that lead to the discovery of opportunities for creating social ventures; and articulate the major ethical concerns social entrepreneurs might encounter. We conclude by outlining implications for entrepreneurs and advancing an agenda for future research, especially the ethics of social entrepreneurship.
We develop the institutional configuration perspective to understand which national contexts facilitate social entrepreneurship (SE). We confirm joint effects on SE of formal regulatory (government ...activism), informal cognitive (postmaterialist cultural values), and informal normative (socially supportive cultural norms, or weak-tie social capital) institutions in a multilevel study of 106,484 individuals in 26 nations. We test opposing propositions from the institutional void and institutional support perspectives. Our results underscore the importance of resource support from both formal and informal institutions, and highlight motivational supply side influences on SE. They advocate greater consideration of institutional configurations in institutional theory and comparative entrepreneurship research.
By now, the becoming business-like of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) is a well-established global phenomenon that has received ever-growing attention from management and organization studies. ...However, the field remains hard to grasp in its entirety, as researchers use a multitude of similar, yet distinct, key concepts. The considerable range and complexity of these overlapping notions create major challenges: Scholars struggle to position their work in a larger context; it is not easy to build on previous findings and methodological developments; and research gaps are difficult to identify. The present article presents the first systematic literature review to confront those challenges by reviewing 599 relevant sources. In a first step, various key concepts are clarified. Second, the field is mapped according to three research foci: causes of NPOs becoming business-like, organizational structures and processes of becoming business-like, and effects of becoming business-like. From this, we draw conclusions and make suggestions for further research.
Social enterprise has gained widespread acclaim as a tool for addressing social and environmental problems. Yet because social enterprises integrate social welfare and commercial logics, they face ...the challenge of pursuing frequently conflicting goals. Studies have begun to address how established social enterprises can manage these tensions, but we know little about how, why, and with what consequences social entrepreneurs mix competing logics as they create new organizations. To address this gap, we develop a theoretical model based in identity theory that helps to explain (1) how commercial and social welfare logics become relevant to entrepreneurship, (2) how different types of entrepreneurs perceive the tension between these logics, and (3) what implications this has for how entrepreneurs recognize and develop social enterprise opportunities. Our approach responds to calls from organizational and entrepreneurship scholars to extend existing frameworks of opportunity recognition and development to better account for social enterprise creation.
In many developing countries those living in poverty are unable to participate in markets due to the weakness or complete absence of supportive institutions. This study examines in microcosm such ...institutional voids and illustrates the activities of an entrepreneurial actor in rural Bangladesh aimed at addressing them. The findings enable us to better understand why institutional voids originate and to unpack institutional processes in a setting characterized by extreme resource constraints and an institutional fabric that is rich but often at odds with market development. We depict the crafting of new institutional arrangements as an ongoing process of bricolage and unveil its political nature as well as its potentially negative consequences.
Addressing the need for conceptualization and operationalization of the social entrepreneurship construct, we propose a behavioral measure of social entrepreneurship orientation (SEO). We build on ...past qualitative work within the social entrepreneurship literature that contextualizes the behavioral entrepreneurship concept, and draw upon the emergent effectuation theory that captures entrepreneurial behavior in resource-constrained contexts. After surveying 507 U.S.-based social purpose organizations, we offer five dimensions of SEO: innovativeness, proactiveness, risk management, effectual orientation, and social mission orientation. We also find support for SEO's nomological validity, observing a positive influence on social innovation. We discuss limitations and implications of our measure to future research in social-entrepreneurship-led social value creation.
•We propose a behavioral measure of social entrepreneurship orientation.•A five dimensional measure is developed using a two-stage research design.•Social entrepreneurship orientation predicts social innovation.•We advance the literature on social-entrepreneurship-led social value creation.
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