Social entrepreneurship orientation : development of a measurement scale

Purpose – Despite growing scholarly v interest in social entrepreneurs and the social enterprises which they create, few studies have examined the hybridity of social enterprises including, surprisingly, whether they adoption an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) One explanation for this may be the continuing lack of an appropriate scale measuring a social entrepreneurship orientation. This paper seeks to address this research gap by proposing an initial social entrepreneurship orientation (SEO) scale based on input from scholars in the fields of entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. Design/methodology/approach – This study presented employed mixed-methods and a two stage design. In stage one a Delphi study with 18 researchers with expertise of investigating entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship was used to generate constructs combining aspects of both social and entrepreneurial orientations. In stage two, we assessed the face validity of the derived items from the Delphi study by conducting a survey with 82 such experts. Findings – The paper provides empirical insights into how SEO can be measured by proposing, for the first time, a 12-item scale with 4 dimensions that allows the measurement of a social entrepreneurship orientation for the first time. Research limitations/implications – We recommend that future studies employ quantitative methods, particularly with firms exhibiting differing levels of the ‘socialness’ dimension which we propose and that such studies involve a variety of research informants. Statistical analysis of data collected across large sample sizes will help evaluate the reliability and validity of the scale which we propose. Practical implications – The paper includes implications for future research based on the proposed social entrepreneurship orientation measurement scale. Originality/value – This paper develops the first SEO scale based on empirical data collected from experts in the fields of entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship