This study aimed to investigate the effect of personality traits on social entrepreneurial intention by extending Mair and Noboa’s (2006) model. Data were collected from a sample survey of 503 individuals. The four-step method suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986) was followed to test the mediational roles of perceived desirability and perceived feasibility in the relationship between six personality traits (need for achievement, risk-taking propensity, innovativeness, proactiveness, empathy and moral obligations) and social entrepreneurial intention. The results showed that the two mediators fully mediated the effects of proactiveness on social entrepreneurial intention, whereas both the mediators were found partially mediating the impact of moral obligation on social entrepreneurial intention. In addition, only perceived feasibility fully mediated the effects of innovativeness on social entrepreneurial intention and partially mediated the effects of empathy. These research results are expected to trigger a change in social entrepreneurship education by cultivating personality traits towards sustainable development. This study’s originality lies in its exploration of potential social entrepreneurs’ personality traits as a combination of general entrepreneurial and social entrepreneurial traits.
The paper examines social entrepreneurial intention through outcome expectations. The proposed model incorporates outcome expectations from social cognitive career theory and theory of planned behaviors. The study also introduces a scale for outcome expectations in social entrepreneurship, including solving social problems, innovation, family tradition of social involvement, meaning in life, prestige and social recognition, competitive and favorite job and wealth. A survey of 279 students was conducted through face-to-face structured interviews. The confirm factor analysis and technique of structural equation modeling were used to explore relationships among latent constructs. Research results show that the outcomes impact only through three determinants of theory of planned behavior and do not have significant impact to social entrepreneurial intention. It suggests that outcome expectations may be a flexible factor. Individual outcome expectations can shift to motivations when facing favorable conditions such as family support, government support, etc. The findings suggest that the ability to predict social entrepreneurial intention of attitude toward behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The proposed model in this study contributes importantly to the emerging literature on entrepreneurial intention, particularly to social entrepreneurial intention. This study is also the first quantitative study to measure the impact of outcome expectations on social entrepreneurial intention.
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