IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eim/papers/h201110.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social and commercial entrepreneurship: Exploring individual and organizational characteristics

Author

Listed:
  • Chantal Hartog
  • Brigitte Hoogendoorn
  • Sophie Bacq
  • Jan Lepoutre

Abstract

This study extends our current knowledge of the social entrepreneur and the activities he/she is involved in and contrasts them with our understanding of commercial entrepreneurs. For the purpose of generating empirically-driven propositions, we bring together insights from current empirical investigations and insights from unique large-scale data from the GEM 2009 survey on social entrepreneurship covering Belgium and The Netherlands. Findings are refined with insights from interviews with key informants in both countries. In general the generated propositions seem to indicate a rather fragile entrepreneurial profile in terms of effort put into the organisation or activity, self-confidence, ambition in terms of employment growth, funding from the sale of products and services and progression to more mature stages of the entrepreneurial process. Furthermore, social entrepreneurs are more likely to be younger, more highly educated and they perceive legitimation of entrepreneurs in society differently than do their commercial counterparts.

Suggested Citation

  • Chantal Hartog & Brigitte Hoogendoorn & Sophie Bacq & Jan Lepoutre, 2011. "Social and commercial entrepreneurship: Exploring individual and organizational characteristics," Scales Research Reports H201110, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:eim:papers:h201110
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.entrepreneurship-sme.eu/pdf-ez/H201110.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Freytag & Roy Thurik, 2010. "Entrepreneurship and its Determinants in a Cross-Country Setting," Springer Books, in: Andreas Freytag & Roy Thurik (ed.), Entrepreneurship and Culture, chapter 0, pages 157-170, Springer.
    2. Mair, Johanna & Marti, Ignasi, 2004. "Social entrepreneurship: What are we talking about? A framework for future research," IESE Research Papers D/546, IESE Business School.
    3. Zahra, Shaker A. & Gedajlovic, Eric & Neubaum, Donald O. & Shulman, Joel M., 2009. "A typology of social entrepreneurs: Motives, search processes and ethical challenges," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 519-532, September.
    4. Chantal Hartog & Brigitte Hoogendoorn, 2011. "Prevalence and Determinants of Social Entrepreneurship at the Macro-level," Scales Research Reports H201022, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    5. Justin van der Sluis & Mirjam van Praag & Wim Vijverberg, 2003. "Entrepreneurship Selection and Performance," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 03-046/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 24 Sep 2004.
    6. Marc Cowling, 2000. "Are entrepreneurs different across countries?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(12), pages 785-789.
    7. Parker,Simon C., 2009. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521728355, March.
    8. Minniti, Maria, 2004. "Entrepreneurial alertness and asymmetric information in a spin-glass model," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 637-658, September.
    9. David G. Blanchflower, 2004. "Self-Employment: More may not be better," NBER Working Papers 10286, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. S. Bacq & F. Janssen, 2011. "The multiple faces of social entrepreneurship: A review of definitional issues based on geographical and thematic criteria," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5-6), pages 373-403, June.
    11. Koellinger, Philipp & Minniti, Maria & Schade, Christian, 2007. ""I think I can, I think I can": Overconfidence and entrepreneurial behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 502-527, August.
    12. Cooper, Arnold C. & Woo, Carolyn Y. & Dunkelberg, William C., 1988. "Entrepreneurs' perceived chances for success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 97-108.
    13. Weerawardena, Jay & Mort, Gillian Sullivan, 2006. "Investigating social entrepreneurship: A multidimensional model," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 21-35, February.
    14. Maria Minniti & Carlo Nardone, 2007. "Being in Someone Else’s Shoes: the Role of Gender in Nascent Entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 223-238, March.
    15. Donald R. Williams, 2004. "Youth Self Employment: Its Nature and Consequences," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 323-336, November.
    16. Mair, Johanna & Marti, Ignasi, 2009. "Entrepreneurship in and around institutional voids: A case study from Bangladesh," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 419-435, September.
    17. Nan Langowitz & Maria Minniti, 2007. "The Entrepreneurial Propensity of Women," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(3), pages 341-364, May.
    18. Silvia Dorado, 2006. "Social Entrepreneurial Ventures: Different Values So Different Process Of Creation, No?," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 11(04), pages 319-343.
    19. Sharir, Moshe & Lerner, Miri, 2006. "Gauging the success of social ventures initiated by individual social entrepreneurs," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 6-20, February.
    20. MariaLaura Di Domenico & Helen Haugh & Paul Tracey, 2010. "Social Bricolage: Theorizing Social Value Creation in Social Enterprises," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(4), pages 681-703, July.
    21. Inglehart, Ronald, 1981. "Post-Materialism in an Environment of Insecurity," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(4), pages 880-900, December.
    22. Etzioni, Amitai, 1987. "Entrepreneurship, adaptation and legitimation : A macro-behavioral perspective," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 175-189, June.
    23. Verheul, Ingrid & Thurik, Roy, 2001. "Start-Up Capital: "Does Gender Matter?"," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 329-345, June.
    24. Hoogendoorn, B. & Pennings, H.P.G. & Thurik, A.R., 2010. "What do We Know about Social Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of Empirical Research," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2009-044-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    25. Zoltan Acs & Niels Bosma & Rolf Sternberg, 2008. "The Entrepreneurial Advantage of World Cities - Evidence from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Data," Jena Economics Research Papers 2008-063, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    26. James Austin & Howard Stevenson & Jane Wei–Skillern, 2006. "Social and Commercial Entrepreneurship: Same, Different, or Both?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(1), pages 1-22, January.
    27. Isabelle Huault & V. Perret & S. Charreire-Petit, 2007. "Management," Post-Print halshs-00337676, HAL.
    28. Seelos, Christian & Mair, Johanna, 2005. "Social entrepreneurship: Creating new business models to serve the poor," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 241-246.
    29. Jacques Defourny & Marthe Nyssens, 2010. "Conceptions of Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurship in Europe and the United States: Convergences and Divergences," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 32-53, March.
    30. Hattwick, Richard E., 1979. "Perception, opportunity and profit : Studies in the Theory of Entrepreneurship. By Israel M. Kirzner. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980. Pp. 239. Price: $15.00," Journal of Behavioral Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 183-188.
    31. Douglas W. Naffziger & Jeffrey S. Hornsby & Donald F. Kuratko, 1994. "A Proposed Research Model of Entrepreneurial Motivation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 18(3), pages 29-42, April.
    32. Charles C. Snow & James B. Thomas, 1994. "Field Research Methods In Strategic Management: Contributions To Theory Building And Testing," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 457-480, July.
    33. Hoogendoorn, B. & van der Zwan, P.W. & Thurik, A.R., 2011. "Social Entrepreneurship and Performance: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Risk," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2011-016-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    34. Simon C. Parker & Mirjam Van Praag, 2010. "Group Status and Entrepreneurship," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 919-945, December.
    35. Busenitz, Lowell W. & Barney, Jay B., 1997. "Differences between entrepreneurs and managers in large organizations: Biases and heuristics in strategic decision-making," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 9-30, January.
    36. Nicholls, Alex, 2010. "Institutionalizing social entrepreneurship in regulatory space: Reporting and disclosure by community interest companies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 394-415, May.
    37. Jonathan Levie, 2007. "Immigration, In-Migration, Ethnicity and Entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 143-169, March.
    38. Peredo, Ana María & McLean, Murdith, 2006. "Social entrepreneurship: A critical review of the concept," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 56-65, February.
    39. Parker,Simon C., 2009. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521899604, March.
    40. Frederic Delmar & Per Davidsson, 2000. "Where do they come from? Prevalence and characteristics of nascent entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, January.
    41. Heiko Bergmann & Rolf Sternberg, 2007. "The Changing Face of Entrepreneurship in Germany," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 205-221, March.
    42. Pia Arenius & Maria Minniti, 2005. "Perceptual Variables and Nascent Entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 233-247, February.
    43. Smallbone, David & Welter, Friederike, 2001. "The Distinctiveness of Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 249-262, June.
    44. Carter, Nancy M. & Gartner, William B. & Reynolds, Paul D., 1996. "Exploring start-up event sequences," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 151-166, May.
    45. Dan Lovallo & Colin Camerer, 1999. "Overconfidence and Excess Entry: An Experimental Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 306-318, March.
    46. Rampini, Adriano A., 2004. "Entrepreneurial activity, risk, and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 555-573, April.
    47. Rolf Sternberg & Sander Wennekers, 2005. "Determinants and Effects of New Business Creation Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Data," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 193-203, January.
    48. Mair, Johanna & Martí, Ignasi, 2006. "Social entrepreneurship research: A source of explanation, prediction, and delight," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 36-44, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gabriela Tigu & Maria-Cristina Iorgulescu & Anamaria Sidonia Ravar & Ramona Lile, 2015. "A Pilot Profile of the Social Entrepreneur in the Constantly Changing Romanian Economy," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 17(38), pages 1-25, February.
    2. Canestrino, Rossella & Ćwiklicki, Marek & Magliocca, Pierpaolo & Pawełek, Barbara, 2020. "Understanding social entrepreneurship: A cultural perspective in business research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 132-143.
    3. Susana Bernardino & J. Freitas Santos, 2015. "Financing social ventures by crowdfunding: the influence of entrepreneurs’ personality traits," NIPE Working Papers 12/2015, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    4. Bojan Leković & Ozren Uzelac & Tibor Fazekaš & Aleksandra Marcikić Horvat & Petar Vrgović, 2021. "Determinants of Social Entrepreneurs in Southeast Europe: GEM Data Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Sorin Blaga & Oana Adriana Gica, 2019. "Corporations’ Social Responsibility And Social Entrepreneurship," Romanian Economic Business Review, Romanian-American University, vol. 14(4), pages 17-31, december.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sophie Bacq & Chantal Hartog & Brigitte Hoogendoorn, 2016. "Beyond the Moral Portrayal of Social Entrepreneurs: An Empirical Approach to Who They Are and What Drives Them," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(4), pages 703-718, February.
    2. Hoogendoorn, B. & van der Zwan, P.W. & Thurik, A.R., 2011. "Social Entrepreneurship and Performance: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Risk," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2011-016-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    3. Pradeep Kumar Hota & Balaji Subramanian & Gopalakrishnan Narayanamurthy, 2020. "Mapping the Intellectual Structure of Social Entrepreneurship Research: A Citation/Co-citation Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 89-114, September.
    4. Adélie Ranville & Marcos Barros, 2022. "Towards Normative Theories of Social Entrepreneurship. A Review of the Top Publications of the Field," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 407-438, October.
    5. Pradeep Kumar Hota, 2023. "Tracing the Intellectual Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship Research: Past Advances, Current Trends, and Future Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 637-659, January.
    6. Robin Stevens & Nathalie Moray & Johan Bruneel, 2015. "The Social and Economic Mission of Social Enterprises: Dimensions, Measurement, Validation, and Relation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(5), pages 1051-1082, September.
    7. Choi, Nia & Majumdar, Satyajit, 2014. "Social entrepreneurship as an essentially contested concept: Opening a new avenue for systematic future research," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 363-376.
    8. João J. Ferreira & Cristina I. Fernandes & Marta Peres-Ortiz & Helena Alves, 2017. "Conceptualizing social entrepreneurship: perspectives from the literature," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(1), pages 73-93, March.
    9. Filipa Lancastre & Carmen Lages & Filipe Santos, 2024. "Social Entrepreneurship as a Family Resemblance Concept with Distinct Ethical Views," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 191(3), pages 611-632, May.
    10. Hoogendoorn, B. & Pennings, H.P.G. & Thurik, A.R., 2010. "What do We Know about Social Entrepreneurship: An Analysis of Empirical Research," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2009-044-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    11. Estrin, Saul & Mickiewicz, Tomasz & Stephan, Ute, 2016. "Human capital in social and commercial entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 449-467.
    12. Elisabet Ferri & David Urbano, 2010. "Environmental Factors and Social Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 1003, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, revised Sep 2010.
    13. Rocío Aliaga-Isla & Benjamin Huybrechts, 2018. "From “Push Out” to “Pull In” Together : An Analysis of Social Entrepreneurship Definitions in the Academic Field," Post-Print hal-02312230, HAL.
    14. Ivano Dileo & Thaís García Pereiro, 2019. "Assessing the impact of individual and context factors on the entrepreneurial process. A cross-country multilevel approach," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1393-1441, December.
    15. Brigitte Hoogendoorn & Peter Zwan & Roy Thurik, 2019. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(4), pages 1133-1154, July.
    16. Xiangping Jia & Geoffrey Desa, 2020. "Social entrepreneurship and impact investment in rural–urban transformation: An orientation to systemic social innovation and symposium findings," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(4), pages 1217-1239, December.
    17. Agnieszka Pacut, 2020. "Drivers toward Social Entrepreneurs Engagement in Poland: An Institutional Approach," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-24, January.
    18. Giuseppina Maria Cardella & Brizeida Raquel Hernández-Sánchez & Alcides Almeida Monteiro & José Carlos Sánchez-García, 2021. "Social Entrepreneurship Research: Intellectual Structures and Future Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-21, July.
    19. Barbara Bradač Hojnik & Katja Crnogaj, 2020. "Social Impact, Innovations, and Market Activity of Social Enterprises: Comparison of European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-15, March.
    20. Nadia Simoes & Nuno Crespo & Sandrina B. Moreira, 2016. "Individual Determinants Of Self-Employment Entry: What Do We Really Know?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 783-806, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eim:papers:h201110. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Webmaster EIM (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eimbpnl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.