Corporate Social Responsibility and Entrepreneurship: Opportunity Perceptions and Bystander Effects

Societal attitudes are understudied framework conditions of entrepreneurial ecosystems. In this paper, we draw on signaling theory to explore whether societal attitudes about corporate social responsibility (CSR) play a role in the decisions of individuals to engage in entrepreneurial activities that address gaps in health care, energy, private education and other socioeconomic conditions. Signaling theory and our empirical results suggest that a correlation exists between citizen perceptions about how informed they are about CSR activities and their motivations to start businesses with social goals. Our results further suggest that a positive correlation exists between the perceived overall influence of CSR and bystander apathy about business decisions and behaviors that provide entrepreneurial solutions to social problems.