The early bird catches the worm: an empirical analysis of imprinting in social entrepreneurship

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Understanding the antecedents of social entrepreneurship is critical for unleashing the potential of social entrepreneurship and thus for tackling social problems. While research has provided valuable insights into imprinting of the conventional entrepreneur, research on differences between social and conventional entrepreneurship suggests that social entrepreneurs evolve differently. Using survey data of 148 social entrepreneurs, we draw on the concepts of imprinting and critical incident recognition as a framework for understanding how social entrepreneur’s childhood experiences and parental exposure to social entrepreneurship affect social entrepreneurial activity in adulthood. First, our results suggest that social entrepreneurs are imprinted by their childhood experiences but not by parental exposure to social entrepreneurship. Second, imprints tend to persist over time when they are linked to critical incidents regarding social entrepreneurship. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of imprinting mechanisms in social entrepreneurship contexts and highlight the importance of making examples of social entrepreneurship tangible to children.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Business Economics : JBE
Volume91
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)127-150
Number of pages24
ISSN0044-2372
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 03.2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

    Research areas

  • Entrepreneurship - social entrepreneurship, Imprinting, Childhood, Critical incidents

Documents

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. The Connected Classroom
  2. The contagion effect of environmental violations
  3. Straw amendment and nitrification inhibitor controlling N losses and immobilization in a soil cooling-warming experiment
  4. Estimation of phosphorus export from a Mediterranean agricultural catchment with scarce data
  5. Die Not- und Selbsthilferechte
  6. Planning Table
  7. Ärger in der Freundschaft
  8. Overcoming the crisis
  9. Christianity
  10. "Wissenschaftsgeschichte 3mal anders"
  11. Marktorientierte Markenbewertung
  12. Im Züchtungswahn? Gottfried Benns „Dorische Welt“
  13. Mitarbeitergespräch
  14. Do We Need to Use an Accountant? The Sales Growth and Survival Benefits to Family SMEs
  15. Scattered Attacks
  16. Corrosion behaviour of a nominally high purity Mg ingot produced by permanent mould direct chill casting
  17. Digital guided self-help for eating disorders
  18. Accounting for foundations
  19. Trade-offs across value-domains in ecosystem services assessment
  20. Modelling of heat exchangers based on thermochemical material for solar heat storage systems
  21. The role of landscape texture in conservation biogeography: a case study on birds in south-eastern Australia
  22. Personality, career development, and occupational attainment
  23. Was hat uns bloß so ruiniert?
  24. Mandelic acid derived ionic liquids
  25. Participatory and collaborative governance for sustainable flood risk management
  26. Zusammenhänge und Mechanismen
  27. Zukunft Bologna!?
  28. Handball in Stundenbildern
  29. Empirical and transcendental subjectivity
  30. An endangered longhorn beetle associated with old oaks and its possible role as an ecosystem engineer