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Personal Antecedents of Social Entrepreneurial Intention in Different Country Clusters and Fields

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Abstract

The formation of social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) is a topic that attracts scholars’ attention recently. Previous studies in the literature mention the importance of personal background on the formation of such intentions (Mair and Noboa, in: Social entrepreneurship: How intentions to create a social venture are formed. In “social entrepreneurship” (pp. 121–135). Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2006); Dorado in Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship 11:1–24, 2006; Scheiber in VOLUNTAS International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. 27:1694–1717, 2016; Bacq and Alt in Journal of Business Venturing 33:333–350, 2018; Hockerts in Journal of Social Entrepreneurship 9:234–256, 2018). However, these studies often use samples from a limited number of countries and/or regions. The aim of this study is twofold. First, this study aims to examine whether the main antecedents of SEI (major hardship, radical change, encountering others’ hardship, and role model) offered in our previous study (Asarkaya and Keles Taysir in Nonprofit Management and Leadership 30:155–166, 2019) based on a sample from a specific country, is applicable within a global context and across different fields. Second, various functions of the main antecedents that lead to the formation of SEI are explored. The list of Ashoka fellows is utilized, and the personal details of 255 social entrepreneurs are analyzed. There are some common patterns in these narratives, supporting the potential influence of the main antecedents. In addition, the weights of these antecedents vary across different fields; and they have distinct functions through which SEI is formed.

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Notes

  1. In this study, the terms “major hardship” and “major challenge” are used interchangeably.

  2. Using only the Ashoka list of SEs is a limitation of our study, as there are other individuals and lists—such as that of Schwab- within the population of SEs.

  3. In some cases, using a single field was not sufficient to explain the activity thoroughly. For such cases, additional categories composed of paired fields are created. To avoid any complication in the interpretation of findings, these 5 participants (out of 260) having paired fields, are left out of analyses.

  4. MH-R: Representing the hardship of a relative.

Abbreviations

EOH:

Encountering others’ hardship

MH:

Major hardship

RC:

Radical change

RM:

Role model

SCT:

Social cognitive theory

SE:

Social entrepreneur/social entrepreneurship

SEI:

Social entrepreneurial intention

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Acknowledgements

We thank the three anonymous reviewers and the editors for their constructive comments to previous versions of this work. We also extend our thanks to PhD candidate Lamin W. Saidykhan for his contribution in data coding.

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  1. Istanbul Commerce University, Ornektepe Mah. Imrahor Cad. No: 88/2, Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey

    Nurgul Keles Taysir & Cigdem Asarkaya

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Correspondence to Nurgul Keles Taysir.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

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Table 7 Major hardship/radical change coding system
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Appendix 2

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Table 8 Role model coding system
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Appendix 3

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Table 9 Major hardship details
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Keles Taysir, N., Asarkaya, C. Personal Antecedents of Social Entrepreneurial Intention in Different Country Clusters and Fields. Voluntas 32, 1066–1083 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-021-00360-8

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