An Empirical Investigation on the Psychological Antecedents of Social Entrepreneurship

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.