Sentimental Drivers of Social Entrepreneurship: A Study of China's Guangcai (Glorious) Program

Social entrepreneurship plays an important role in local development in emerging economies, but scholars have paid little attention to this emerging phenomenon. Under the theory of moral sentiments, we posit that some entrepreneurs are altruistically motivated to promote a morally effective economic system by engaging in social entrepreneurial activities. Focusing on China's Guangcai (Glorious) Program, a social entrepreneurship program initiated by China's private entrepreneurs to combat poverty and contribute to regional development, we find that private entrepreneurs are motivated to participate in such programs if they have more past distressing experiences, including limited educational opportunities, unemployment experience, rural poverty experience, and startup location hardship. Their perceived social status further strengthens these relationships. Our study contributes to the social entrepreneurship literature by offering a moral sentiment perspective that explains why some entrepreneurs voluntarily join a social entrepreneurship program to mitigate poverty in society.

社会创业在新兴经济体的发展中担任着重要的角色, 但对这一新兴现象的学术研究尚显不足。 本文基于道德情操理论, 提出创业者会无私地投身社会创业活动, 从而促进了道德经济体系的有效运作。 中国光彩事业是由国内民营企业家发起, 致力于国内地区开发扶贫的社会创业项目。 通过对此项目的研究, 本文发现了创业者有愈多早年的困苦经历(包括教育程度低、 失业、 在贫穷乡村的经历、 创业地域的贫困), 他们就愈会参与社会创业活动; 同时, 他们的社会地位感知可改变此关系的强弱。 这次研究将道德情操理论引入至社会创业文献, 对理解为何创业者会自愿参与社会创业、 解决社会贫困问题提供了新的理论和依据。