Why social entrepreneurs start social enterprises: capturing contextualised life stories of social entrepreneurs in Kerala, India

Abstract

While research on social entrepreneurship and related concepts is steadily increasing, the existing research has over-emphasized the fact that pro-social motive is the primary reason for social entrepreneurs to start social enterprises. Though few studies challenge the pre-existing notion and argue that personal interest can also end up in the creation of social enterprises, the present study tries to understand how these motives evolve and shape over time to convert into social enterprises. By doing so, the study addresses a research gap regarding understanding diverse pathways taken by social entrepreneurs to launch social enterprises. To answer the research question, the study adopts a qualitative research design with a narrative approach. The study employs the concept of contextualised life stories to further design the study. Data was collected from four social entrepreneurs in Kerala, India, by using in-depth interviews as this context is not much explored in the literature. The study found that the creation of social enterprises is not merely the presence of personal interest or prosocial motives in social entrepreneurs. Rather, it rests on how these interests and motives interact and transition through the influence of triggering events. The study also found that triggering events can either happen naturally or be created. Identifying the latter could be useful for relevant stakeholders of social entrepreneurship, ranging from policymakers to practitioners, to create such trigger events to promote more social entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, the study recommends further studies to investigate the triggering events that influence the creation of social enterprises in different contexts.