IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa15p175.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Social Entrepreneurship: Does Institutional Environment Make a Difference?

Author

Listed:
  • José Cadima Ribeiro
  • José Freitas Santos
  • Susana Bernardino

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship has been recognized as a helpful instrument of social and economic policy. The European Commission, namely, has recognized very early the importance of social organizations on economic growth and social innovation, through their contribution for the development of societies endowed with better levels of democracy, activism and social cohesion. Having that in mind, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the link between social entrepreneurship and institutional environment in Portugal. A quantitative approach is used in the study, and primary data were collected through an online survey. A questionnaire was emailed to, both, Portuguese Non-Governmental Organizations and projects available on the Portuguese Social Stock Exchange. In the analysis of the data we used descriptive statistics, factorial analysis and t-student tests to validate (or not) the research hypotheses. The results show that a favorable institutional environment (social, institutional) seems to have a low influence on the decision-making process related to the creation of new social entrepreneurial initiatives. Conversely, the sense individuals hold about the skills required to develop the new venture and the previous knowledge that their action will produce a desirable outcome have a significant weight on their decision. This conclusion supports the idea that many social entrepreneurs can emerge even in developing regions where the institutional environment is weak. Therefore, social entrepreneurship could be an instrument of regional development and contribute to attenuate the social and economic differences among Portuguese regions.

Suggested Citation

  • José Cadima Ribeiro & José Freitas Santos & Susana Bernardino, 2015. "Social Entrepreneurship: Does Institutional Environment Make a Difference?," ERSA conference papers ersa15p175, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p175
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa15/e150825aFinal00175.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victor J. Friedman & Helena Desivilya, 2010. "Integrating social entrepreneurship and conflict engagement for regional development in divided societies," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(6), pages 495-514, October.
    2. David Urbano & Elisabet Ferri, "undated". "Environmental Factors And Social Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 201003, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
    3. North,Douglass C., 1991. "Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521394161, January.
    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. Doh, Jonathan P. & Teegen, Hildy, 2002. "Nongovernmental organizations as institutional actors in international business: theory and implications," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(6), pages 665-684, December.
    6. Douglass C. North, 1991. "Institutions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 97-112, Winter.
    7. A. Fayolle & H. Matlay, 2010. "Handbook of Research in Social Entrepreneurship," Post-Print halshs-00586838, HAL.
    8. Edward Nissan & Maria-Soledad Castaño & Inmaculada Carrasco, 2012. "Drivers of non-profit activity: a cross-country analysis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 303-320, April.
    9. Alain Fayolle & Harry Matlay, 2010. "Handbook of Research on Social Entrepreneurship," Post-Print hal-02298138, HAL.
    10. Weerawardena, Jay & Mort, Gillian Sullivan, 2006. "Investigating social entrepreneurship: A multidimensional model," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 21-35, February.
    11. Yoon-Doo Kim & Seok Yoon, 2012. "Current Status and Policy Implications for Fostering Social Entrepreneur," American Journal of Economics and Business Administration, Science Publications, vol. 4(3), pages 155-165, July.
    12. Saul Estrin & Tomasz Mickiewicz & Ute Stephan, 2013. "Entrepreneurship, Social Capital, and Institutions: Social and Commercial Entrepreneurship across Nations," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(3), pages 479-504, May.
    13. Baumol, William J., 1996. "Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive, and destructive," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 3-22, January.
    14. 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.
    15. Ronny Baierl & Dietmar Grichnik & Matthias Spörrle & Isabell M. Welpe, 2014. "Antecedents of Social Entrepreneurial Intentions: The Role of an Individual's General Social Appraisal," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 123-145, May.
    16. David Urbano & Nuria Toledano & Domingo Ribeiro Soriano, 2010. "Analyzing Social Entrepreneurship from an Institutional Perspective: Evidence from Spain," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 54-69, March.
    17. 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.
    18. Abhijit Roy & Alan Brumagim & Irene Goll, 2014. "Predictors of Social Entrepreneurship Success: A Cross-national Analysis of Antecedent Factors," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 42-59, January.
    19. Berhanu Nega & Geoffrey Schneider, 2014. "NGOs, the State, and Development in Africa," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(4), pages 485-503, October.
    20. Jeffrey G. Covin & Dennis P. Slevin, 1991. "A Conceptual Model of Entrepreneurship as Firm Behavior," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 16(1), pages 7-26, October.
    21. Estrin, Saul & Mickiewicz, Tomasz & Stephan, Ute, 2011. "For Benevolence and for Self-Interest: Social and Commercial Entrepreneurial Activity across Nations," IZA Discussion Papers 5770, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    22. Gordon E. Shockley & Peter M. Frank, 2011. "The functions of government in social entrepreneurship: theory and preliminary evidence," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(3), pages 181-198, August.
    23. Mair, Johanna, 2010. "Social entrepreneurship: Taking stock and looking ahead," IESE Research Papers D/888, IESE Business School.
    24. 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. Mario La Torre & Helen Chiappini (ed.), 2020. "Contemporary Issues in Sustainable Finance," Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-3-030-40248-8, February.
    2. Qing Ye & Rongting Zhou & Muhammad Azfar Anwar & Ahmad Nabeel Siddiquei & Fahad Asmi, 2020. "Entrepreneurs and Environmental Sustainability in the Digital Era: Regional and Institutional Perspectives," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-21, February.

    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. Agnieszka Pacut, 2020. "Drivers toward Social Entrepreneurs Engagement in Poland: An Institutional Approach," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-24, January.
    2. Nadarević, Sabine & Martin, Alexander, 2020. "A comparative study on the institutional determinants of social entrepreneurial activity: The moderating effect of capitalism," Flensburger Hefte zu Unternehmertum und Mittelstand 19, Jackstädt-Zentrum Flensburg.
    3. Silvia Carnini Pulino & Riccardo Maiolini & Paolo Venturi, 2019. "Social Entrepreneurship Policy: Evidences from the Italian Reform," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 13(3), pages 77-88.
    4. Mendoza-Abarca, Karla I. & Anokhin, Sergey & Zamudio, César, 2015. "Uncovering the influence of social venture creation on commercial venture creation: A population ecology perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 793-807.
    5. Sayem Hossain & M. Abu Saleh & Judy Drennan, 0. "A critical appraisal of the social entrepreneurship paradigm in an international setting: a proposed conceptual framework," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-22.
    6. 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.
    7. Evgeny V. Popov & Anna Y. Veretennikova & Ksenia M. Kozinskaya, 2018. "Formal Institutional Environment Influence on Social Entrepreneurship in Developed Countries," Montenegrin Journal of Economics, Economic Laboratory for Transition Research (ELIT), vol. 14(4), pages 45-56.
    8. Hadad Shahrazad, 2017. "Main research areas and methods in social entrepreneurship," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 11(1), pages 893-903, July.
    9. Sayem Hossain & M. Abu Saleh & Judy Drennan, 2017. "A critical appraisal of the social entrepreneurship paradigm in an international setting: a proposed conceptual framework," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 347-368, June.
    10. Michael H. Morris & Susana C. Santos & Donald F. Kuratko, 2021. "The great divides in social entrepreneurship and where they lead us," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 1089-1106, October.
    11. 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.
    12. Inmaculada Buendía-Martínez & Inmaculada Carrasco Monteagudo, 2020. "The Role of CSR on Social Entrepreneurship: An International Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, August.
    13. Jacob Hörisch & Jana Kollat & Steven A. Brieger, 2017. "What influences environmental entrepreneurship? A multilevel analysis of the determinants of entrepreneurs’ environmental orientation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 47-69, January.
    14. 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.
    15. Etayankara Muralidharan & Saurav Pathak, 2019. "Consequences of Cultural Leadership Styles for Social Entrepreneurship: A Theoretical Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Ana Fernández-Laviada & Carlos López-Gutiérrez & Andrea Pérez, 2020. "How Does the Development of the Social Enterprise Sector Affect Entrepreneurial Behavior? An Empirical Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, January.
    17. 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.
    18. Gabriel-Alexandru Toma, 2022. "Social entrepreneurship: a conceptual taxonomy," Journal of Community Positive Practices, Catalactica NGO, issue 1, pages 60-76.
    19. Gupta, Parul & Chauhan, Sumedha & Paul, Justin & Jaiswal, M.P., 2020. "Social entrepreneurship research: A review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 209-229.
    20. Amir Forouharfar & Seyed Aligholi Rowshan & Habibollah Salarzehi, 2018. "An epistemological critique of social entrepreneurship definitions," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 8(1), pages 1-40, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Social Entrepreneurship; Social and Solidarity Economy; Regional Development.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa15p175. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    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.