How Does the Development of the Social Enterprise Sector Affect Entrepreneurial Behavior? An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

Research on social entrepreneurship (SE) has increased exponentially during the past decade.Even though this social phenomenon has aroused the interest of researchers, many aspects have notyet been fully studied. In this study, the goal is to analyze how the factors that define the behavior ofsocial entrepreneurs are affected by the perception that they have about the development of the socialenterprise sector (SES development). We perform an empirical multivariable analysis using 2015Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data related to SE, with an international sample that containsinformation of 17,778 entrepreneurs, of which 6470 are social entrepreneurs. The empirical analysis iscarried out applying binary response models, introducing interaction terms to analyze the moderatingeffect of SES development. Our results show that the entrepreneurs? perception of the SES developmentexerts a moderating effect over three different groups of factors: 1) factors related to self-perceptionabout entrepreneurship (including values, perceptions, and entrepreneurial skills); 2) demographicfactors (gender, age, and education level), and 3) context and entrepreneurial environment (includingfactors related to entrepreneurs? perception of societal values, entrepreneurship environment, andeconomic development). This moderating effect has very important implications, especially forpolicymakers. Our results show that SES development could amplify some effects, both positivelyand negatively. Therefore, the design and implementation of policies to support SE must considerthe moderating role of this variable on the entrepreneurial behavior, because it could affect theeffectiveness of such policies