Does Social Entrepreneurship Education Impact Social Entrepreneurship Intentions Formation?

This paper studies the impact of social entrepreneurship education. In particular it measures the change in the social entrepreneurial antecedents scale (SEAS) in students participating in social entrepreneurship electives. ... [ view full abstract ]

This paper studies the impact of social entrepreneurship education. In particular it measures the change in the social entrepreneurial antecedents scale (SEAS) in students participating in social entrepreneurship electives. The paper demonstrates that participation in such electives increases a student’s perceived moral obligation to help marginalized people, social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, perceived social support, as well as the student’s social entrepreneurial intentions. No effect was found for empathy. In a control group of students which had participated in other management courses during the same time no such change was found.

Theoretical Framing

This study draws on the social entrepreneurial antecedents scale (SEAS) as it theoretical foundation (Hockerts, 2013, 2014). The SEAS is based on the work of Mair and Noboa (2006), who have adapted the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to the context of social entrepreneurship. The model assumes that social entrepreneurial intentions are influenced by four construct: empathy with marginalized people, perceived moral obligation to help such people, social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and perceived social support.

This paper will test the following hypotheses.

H1: Participation in social entrepreneurship courses will increase a person’s social entrepreneurial empathy.
H2: Participation in social entrepreneurship courses will increase a person’s perceived moral obligation towards disadvantaged people.
H3: Participation in social entrepreneurship courses will increase a person’s social entrepreneurial self-efficacy.
H4: Participation in social entrepreneurship courses will increase a person’s perceived social support for social entrepreneurial behavior.
H5: Participation in social entrepreneurship courses will increase a person’s intention to engage in social entrepreneurship behavior.

To measure the effect of social entrepreneurship education on the variables of interest the samples was divided into two subsamples (N=52 and N=83). Both samples were extracted from a population of 2nd-year Master students, enrolled at a Scandinavian Business School in their third semester. During that semester students select up to four elective courses on a broad number of topics. Students were surveyed twice; just before starting the semester and just after having finished it.

The data from this study confirms some of the hypotheses advanced earlier. It concludes that the four social entrepreneurship courses underlying this study do indeed have a positive impact on a student’s intention to start a social enterprise as well as his or her sense of moral obligation to help marginalized people. Moreover, it does not seem implausible that a larger study size might find similar results for social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and perceived support.