Addressing the need for conceptualization and operationalization of the social entrepreneurship construct, we propose a behavioral measure of social entrepreneurship orientation (SEO). We build on past qualitative work within the social entrepreneurship literature that contextualizes the behavioral entrepreneurship concept, and draw upon the emergent effectuation theory that captures entrepreneurial behavior in resource-constrained contexts. After surveying 507 U.S.-based social purpose organizations, we offer five dimensions of SEO: innovativeness, proactiveness, risk management, effectual orientation, and social mission orientation. We also find support for SEO’s nomological validity, observing a positive influence on social innovation. We discuss limitations and implications of our measure to future research in social-entrepreneurship-led social value creation.

Introduction

The increasing recognition of social purpose organizations’ (SPOs’) contribution to economic and societal wellbeing is fueling academic, practitioner, and policy planner interest in social entrepreneurship (SE) and resulting impact on social value creation (Bacq & Janssen, 2011; Lurtz & Kreutzer, 2017). The literature on SE-led social value creation is growing. However, the broad inclusiveness of SE which currently accommodates all activities with some element of social value creation creates challenges for demarcating the construct’s conceptual boundaries (Leadbeater & Goss, 1998; Shaw & Carter, 2007), and contributes to a definitional ambiguity of the SE construct (Bacq & Janssen, 2011; Short, Moss, & Lumpkin, 2009), thereby hindering advancement of the field. Broadly, the SE field is seemingly in a pre-paradigmatic stage (Nicholls, 2010), comprising less sophisticated methodologies, predominantly using success stories of social entrepreneurs (Lepoutre, Justo, Terjesen, & Bosma, 2013), and lacking novel datasets and explanatory/quantitative enquiries (Short et al., 2009). In a positive development, researchers advocate using established theoretical lenses from fields such as management and entrepreneurship to advance SE (Dacin, Dacin, & Tracey, 2011; Short et al., 2009). However, such efforts must be contextualized, capturing the complexity and uniqueness of SE (Shaw & Carter, 2007; Steyaert & Dey, 2010), since SE differs substantially from commercial entrepreneurship (Lurtz & Kreutzer, 2017). Past attempts to conceptualize and operationalize SE focus on what social entrepreneurs do; however, research capturing the core characteristics of SE remains scant. SE researchers have used the firm behavior framework of entrepreneurship (Mair & Martí, ۲۰۰۶; Weerawardena & Sullivan Mort, 2006) adapted from commercial entrepreneurship theory (Covin & Slevin, 1991). Particularly, Weerawardena and Sullivan Mort (2006) contextualize this framework through qualitative work, proposing a constrained optimization framework of SE whereby social entrepreneurs, in addition to displaying conventional behavioral characteristics, display characteristics that capture the SE context. Similarly, the effectuation framework (Sarasvathy, 2001) seems suitable to capture entrepreneurial behavior in resource-constrained environments as normally evident in SPOs (VanSandt, Sud, & Marmé, ۲۰۰۹). Building upon these developments, we propose social entrepreneurship orientation (SEO) construct as an organizational behavioral orientation displayed by SPOs in their strategic decisions. We conceptualize SEO as comprising behavioral characteristics of innovativeness, proactiveness, risk management, social mission orientation, sustainability orientation, and effectual orientation. We test our measure using a two-stage design in a survey of 507 U.S.-based SPOs, and validate the measure with social innovation which signifies social value creation (Weerawardena & Sullivan Mort, 2006, 2012).