More Prosocial, More Ephemeral? Exploring the Formation of a Social Entrepreneur's Exit Intention via Life Satisfaction

Jianing Dong; Xiao Wang; Xuanwei Cao; David Higgins

doi:10.3390/ijerph19126966

More Prosocial, More Ephemeral? Exploring the Formation of a Social Entrepreneur's Exit Intention via Life Satisfaction

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jun 7;19(12):6966. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19126966.

Authors

Jianing Dong^{1

2}, Xiao Wang^{1

2}, Xuanwei Cao^{1

2}, David Higgins²

Affiliations

¹ International Business School Suzhou, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215123, China.
² Management School, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK.

Abstract

This study was designed to test if satisfaction with health and personal financial wellbeing mediates the relationship between prosocial motivations and exit intentions among social entrepreneurs. Using a sample of 317 social entrepreneurs, the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that prosocial motivation decreased the financial satisfaction of entrepreneurs, which increased their exit intentions. However, health satisfaction did not have a mediating effect on the relationship between prosocial motivation and exit intention. Moreover, adopting the multi-group analysis (MGA) technique, we found that the negative impact of prosocial motivation on financial satisfaction was stronger for males than for females, suggesting male entrepreneurs were more likely to experience lower financial satisfaction caused by prosocial motivation than female entrepreneurs. There was no evidence that gender moderated the relationship between prosocial motivation and health satisfaction.

Keywords: exit intention; gender; life satisfaction; prosocial motivation; social entrepreneur.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Female
Humans
Intention*
Male
Motivation
Personal Satisfaction*

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by the XJTLU doctoral scholarship PGRS 1901010.