A field research of nascent social entrepreneurs intention formation

Abstract

The objective of this study is to identify the role and robustness of social entrepreneurial education, social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, empathy and moral obligation in predicting social entrepreneurial intentions. A 37-item questionnaire was answered by 200 nascent social entrepreneurs who are engaged in executing a new business idea and enrolled in universities in India. Perceived feasibility was found to be the strongest predictor of social entrepreneurial intention followed by empathy. Through this study the authors aim to address two major weaknesses in the current literature on social entrepreneurship: the limited scope of student samples used in most of the research studies, and the lack of empirical studies that attempt to translate social entrepreneurial intentions into behaviour. This chapter addresses conceptual and methodological issues associated with analysing the intention–behaviour relationship.