What drives social entrepreneurs - Research Proposal Example

Social entrepreneurship (SE) in most countries is defined as an activity that aims to advance the human life and seek a solution to the social problem. A social enterprise could be both for-profit and not-for-profit (see for instance, Ridley-Duff & Bull, 2011), though often the profit is reinvested into the business or the society. Social entrepreneurs work beside public institutions and distribute the innovation and wealth for the private sector where it is needed in shorter time and with fewer hierarchies.

The question for this research is not what role they play in the society, but what are the factors and forces that drive the motivation in people to become social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurs vary in their patterns of thinking, quantity, and intensity of social entrepreneurship (Light, 2005). In order to have a thorough understanding of the skills, capabilities, and tendencies of social entrepreneurs, it is imperative that their behavior and thinking is analyzed in detail. This research is directed at achieving this goal by studying the variations and modifications in the behavior and thinking of a large sample of social entrepreneurs from a variety of backgrounds.

Exploring social entrepreneurs’ perceptions of life and commitment provides guidelines for providing entrepreneurial education and facilities that are not built merely for purposes and the benefit of shareholders but also for the social and economic well-being of people. This section provides a review of the past research on the subject that paved the way for framing the research question. The field of social entrepreneurship is rather new and many scholars think there is dearth of theories and studies about it, though many mutually consent that the field proceeds quickly and has room for development (Lehner & Kansikas, 2011).

Zahra et al. (2009) defined three categories for social entrepreneurs, each having a