Characteristics Of Social Entrepreneurship

By focusing more on adding social value rather than only focusing on financial outcomes, social entrepreneurs have been stepping up to meet gaps where governments or other institutions failed for a long time. In general, it can be concluded that personality traits influence entrepreneurship. Earlier research has been performed on this subject, however, these researchers mostly focused on commercial entrepreneurship rather than the social aspect. However, in her study, Nga (2010) examines the influences of personality on social entrepreneurship. More specific: the influence of the big 5 personality traits on the social entrepreneurship dimension. Both the big 5 personality traits and the social entrepreneurship dimension will be discussed in

Because they are social responsible, social entrepreneurs feel the need to serve basic human needs and to improve society as a whole. Moreover, they are centred on achievement, independent, have a sense of density, tolerant for ambiguity and have a low risk aversion. Typically, social entrepreneurs go through different stages of a process when engaging in social entrepreneurship. Firstly, they go through the envisioning stage where they identify a social need which at the same time offers an opportunity as a gap. After this, they engage by committing themselves to this social need. Then they enact by actually assigning purpose from inception to fruition. Finally, different resources such as human- and financial capital need to be acquired in order to sustain their social vision. All these characteristics need to be taken into account when defining the social entrepreneurship variable. (SOC_ENT)

The 5 dimensions of social entrepreneurs’ characteristics

As a result, Nga (2010) differentiated between 5 different dimensions within the (SOC_ENT) variable: social vision, sustainability, social networks, innovations and financial returns.

Social Vision

Organizations must accept the fact that they are major contributors towards both social- as well as environmental degradation. Sustainable entrepreneurs try ’’doing well by doing good.’’ Furthermore, they see society as a whole as a stakeholder and value the environment. Additionally, they seek to create a continuous added value with dedication towards enduring responsible innovations.

Social Networks (SN)

In order to get access to advice, human resources, innovative ideas and financial and emotional support, social entrepreneurs rely heavily on their social network. Within social networks, three different dimensions exist: structural capital, relational capital and cognitive capital. By actively participating in social networks, collective learning is stimulated and it results in a better collective understanding of the norms.

Innovations (INV)

Due to the limited amount of resources entrepreneurs often have available, they need to be create in solving social issues. Since social entrepreneurs often explore bottom-pyramid markets which might not be so interesting for the traditional profit oriented entrepreneurs, they create innovative