Title: A social affair: identifying motivation of social entrepreneurs

Authors: Inès Gabarret; Benjamin Vedel; Julien Decaillon

Addresses: EDC Paris Business School, OCRE – Labex Entreprendre, 70 Galerie des Damiers, Paris La Defense 1, 92415 Courbevoie Cedex, France ' IAE University of Lille, LEM (UMR-CNRS 9221) – Labex Entreprendre, 104 av du peuple Belge, 59043 Lille Cedex, France ' EDC Paris Business School, 70 Galerie des Damiers, Paris La Defense 1, 92415 Courbevoie Cedex, France

Abstract: Social entrepreneurship is a relatively new object of research and, despite the growing interest it generates in the literature, there is a diversity of definitions and approaches. The objective of this paper is to contributeto the understanding of the motivation of social entrepreneurs by applying the push and pull approach. We study the entrepreneurial motivation of eight social entrepreneurs. The findings suggest that social entrepreneurs are motivated by a combination of both push and pull factors and drivers of motivation are not only at an individual level (personal needs) but also at a social level through the recognition of social needs.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; social entrepreneurs; motivation; push; pull.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESB.2017.084845

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2017 Vol.31 No.3, pp.399 - 415

Received: 29 Dec 2015
Accepted: 07 Jan 2016
Published online: 01 Jul 2017 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article