Social Entrepreneurs as Role Models for Innovative Professional Career Developments

Abstract

Through qualitative analysis, this paper examines the role of social entrepreneurs as an example of innovative and alternative professional career development. We review the dominant literature about social entrepreneurs’ distinct intentions, attitudes, abilities, and behaviors. We also directly connect social entrepreneurs’ biographies and discourses with the actual nature of their social enterprises. We have found some fundamental common factors as critical determinants of the final social entrepreneurial decision and result: (i) motivations such as emotional connection, moral judgment, personal dissatisfaction, purpose achievement and change, and social needs; (ii) personal internal resources such as connection skills, conviction, creativity, efficiency skills, and learning orientation; (iii) facilitating external factors such as financial and social support, higher and social education, relevant past events, and previous professional experience. Putting together all these factors, we develop a theoretical framework that can explain social entrepreneurship as an alternative career option and connect it with a dominant social entrepreneur’s narrative and profile.

Exploring the role of narrative in social enterprise and social innovation

“…The majority of articles in this theme are of a descriptive nature and use forms of narrative analysis to explore opportunity identification for and pathways into social entrepreneurship (Chandra and Shang, 2017; Itelvino et al. , 2018; Asarkaya and Keles Taysir, 2019; Alvarez de Mon et al. , 2021; Liu and Liang, 2021; Stirzaker et al.…”

“…The majority of articles in this theme are of a descriptive nature and use forms of narrative analysis to explore opportunity identification for and pathways into social entrepreneurship (Chandra and Shang, 2017;Itelvino et al, 2018;Asarkaya and Keles Taysir, 2019;Alvarez de Mon et al, 2021;Liu and Liang, 2021;Stirzaker et al, 2021;Vial and Richomme-Huet, 2021), motivations for becoming and continuing to be a social entrepreneur (Mody et al, 2016;Yitshaki and Kropp, 2016;Kropp et al, 2017;Milczarczyk, 2019;Sadílek et al, 2022) or experiences of being and strategies for thriving or surviving as a social entrepreneur in India (Padhy and Bhaskar, 2021), the Philippines (Caringal-Go and Canoy, 2019), China (Hsu, 2017), during the Covid-19 pandemic (Borzaga and Tallarini, 2021), as a single elderly woman (Meliou et al, 2019) or women of colour (Schachter, 2022).…”

Student Perception of Competencies and Skills for Social Entrepreneurship in Complex Environments: An Approach with Mexican University Students

“…The social entrepreneur has been conceptualized as a person committed to an idea or initiative that addresses a social problem in their environment, seeking to make it sustainable over time (Jardim et al 2022). This notion seems to focus on the commitment and social responsibility of the entrepreneur above all things; however, at the end of the day, social entrepreneurship must involve sustainable projects, which implies good management of human, economic, and even temporal resources (Alvarez de Mon et al 2021). Although authors such as Shapovalov et al (2019) raise the importance of the entrepreneurs' social vision as a distinctive feature, they consider that one cannot lose sight of the need to have sufficient skills to identify, create, and develop opportunities, aspects that are shared with other, more traditional entrepreneurs.…”

Comparative Content Analysis on the Determinants of Social and Commercial Entrepreneurs: A qualitative approach on Nvivo

“…Social entrepreneurs have a social mission and innovative ideas to identify unmet needs and solve societal problems (Qamar et al, 2020). Social entrepreneurs compact with multiple forces to balance heart and brain, emotions and logic, and outcomes and values (Alvarez de Mon et al, 2021). Social entrepreneurs grip the area where government and traditional businesses have failed to gratify the social problems (Mair, Powell, & Bromley, 2020).…”