A framework for antecedents of social entrepreneurial intention: Empirical evidence and research agenda

Sabine Bergner; Carolin Palmer; Megan Devaney; Philipp Kruse

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.988851

A framework for antecedents of social entrepreneurial intention: Empirical evidence and research agenda

Front Psychol. 2022 Oct 13:13:988851. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.988851. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Sabine Bergner¹, Carolin Palmer², Megan Devaney³, Philipp Kruse⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
² Institute for Business Administration and Leadership (IBAL), University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany.
³ Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
⁴ Faculty of Psychology, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany.

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship (SE) increasingly contributes to diversity in entrepreneurship. The different approaches to SE suggest a variety of antecedents which drive individuals' intention to become social entrepreneurs. While this variety of antecedents is insightful, it also creates a need for systemisation and prioritization. We address this need by introducing an integrative, multi-level framework for person-based antecedents of SE-intention. Based on this multi-level framework the antecedents are grouped on three theoretical levels which refer to an individual's (1) personality, (2) cognition, and (3) entrepreneurial exposition. When testing our framework with 499 South African University students we find support for the multi-level framework and its notion that antecedents from the diverse levels complement each other. Therefore, this study provides a structure for person-based antecedents of SE-intention and additionally points to future research which may extend the proposed framework.

Keywords: South Africa; antecedents; entrepreneurial intention; social entrepreneur; social entrepreneurship; theory of planned behavior.