The measurement and antecedents of social entrepreneurial motivation

There are two purposes of this study. First, a measure of social entrepreneurship motivation has been developed. The finalized 15-item measure of social entrepreneurial motivation measures two moderately correlated but distinct factors relating to calculative and affective social entrepreneurial motivation. Second, a model of social entrepreneurial motivation and its antecedents was examined. One hundred and nineteen (70 females, 49 males) local universities students aged from 20 to 31 years old (M = 23.05, SD = 1.85) participated in this study and completed a survey questionnaire that includes measures for social entrepreneurial motivation, compassion, empathy, Dark Triad personalities, materialistic value, intention to undertake social entrepreneurship and demographic particulars. Compassion, perspective taking, empathic concern, fantasy were positively correlated to affective social entrepreneurial motivation. Machiavellianism, psychopathy, materialism-success and materialism-centrality were negatively correlated to affective social entrepreneurial motivation. Stepwise multiple regression revealed that high empathic concern, low materialism-centrality and low psychopathy were important predictors of affective social entrepreneurial motivation. High perspective taking was significantly positively correlated to calculative social motivation. Stepwise multiple regression revealed perspective-taking as the most important predictor of calculative social entrepreneurial motivation. The measure of social entrepreneurial motivation has demonstrated evidence of predictive validity. Calculative social entrepreneurial motivation predicted intention to undertake social entrepreneurship. Limitations and contributions of this study are outlined, and directions for future research are proposed.Bachelor of Art