How work values shape intentions – attractiveness of social entrepreneurship among the youth

Keywords: work values, self-efficacy, entrepreneurial intentions, social entrepreneurship, sustainability knowledge Entrepreneurship forms the back bone of the society contributing to economic growth and employment. The... [ view full abstract ]

Keywords: work values, self-efficacy, entrepreneurial intentions, social entrepreneurship, sustainability knowledge

Entrepreneurship forms the back bone of the society contributing to economic growth and employment. The entrepreneurial intention are higher than ever in Europe, as the generations entering the working force have suggested to be more entrepreneurial than previous generations (Hewlett et al. 2009). Simultaneously, different forms of entrepreneurship are emerging, such as sustainable (Shephard and Patzelt 2011) and social entrepreneurship (Mair & Marti 2006). The emergence of different types of entrepreneurship has turned attention towards motivations, which previously have been thought to be only economic in the case on entrepreneurial intentions, and as a result there is need to examine how motives and values differ according to different types of entrepreneurship(Carsrud and Brännback 2011). In the case of social entrepreneurship, the focus is on creating social change and improvement by using profit generations as a means to the end (Seelos and Mair 2005; Zahra et al. 2009). Despite the emerging change, there is only limited evidence about the role of values and motivations in entrepreneurship (Fayolle et al. 2014). Additionally, existing entrepreneurial intentions models have neglected the role of entrepreneurial opportunities in intentions formation, and there is especially only limited evidence about intentions formation in the field of social entrepreneurship (e.g. Mair and Noboa 2003; Nga and Shamuganathan 2010), although future contributions regarding entrepreneurial opportunities have been suggested to come from the field of social and environmental entrepreneurship as well as from sustainable development (Shepherd 2015).

Our research aims at answering the following research question: Which factors shape social entrepreneurial goal and social entrepreneurial intentions. Additionally, we examine the interrelationships between work values, social and general entrepreneurial intentions, social entrepreneurial goal and sustainability knowledge. We build on the model of the context-specific entrepreneurial intentions mode (Elfving 2008) and the attributes of entrepreneurial opportunities (Haynie et al. 2009). Our sample consists of university students in Liechtenstein, Austria and Finland, and we will use linear regression models to analyze the data. By answering the research question, our findings contribute to entrepreneurship literature by providing empirical evidence about the role of goal-specific entrepreneurial intentions and comparing them to general entrepreneurial intentions. Moreover, we show that social entrepreneurial intentions are driven by different values that general entrepreneurial intentions. Lastly, our findings contribute to intentions research literature by showing that experience and specific knowledge better explain entrepreneurial intentions than general self-efficacy. The role of specific knowledge has implications to entrepreneurial education, and examination of interrelationships between values that precede intentions provide evidence about which values are important to be considered in entrepreneurship education. Moreover, the findings have implications for the contents of the entrepreneurship curricula: should entrepreneurship students to be encourage to increase their knowledge in other fields, and how does it affect the relations between intentions and social entrepreneurial goal.