Do Volunteers Intend to Become Social Entrepreneurs? The Influence of Pro-Social Behavior on Social Entrepreneurial Intentions

This article examines the influence of pro-social behavior on social entrepreneurial intentions (SEI). Drawing on theory of planned behavior, entrepreneurship, and behavioral psychology literatures, we examine the influence of volunteers’ traits and behavior on SEI. Our research adds two unexplored antecedents to previous studies, volunteers’ altruism, and religion. From a sample of 423 volunteers, our model shows that self-efficacy, perceived social support, opportunity recognition, and altruism, influence volunteers’ SEI, while moral obligation, religion, and empathy were not significant. Thus, without entrepreneurial characteristics such as self-efficacy and opportunity recognition, volunteers are unlikely to engage in social entrepreneurship. Given that altruism can be triggered by contrasting drivers (e.g., self-interest or selflessness), these differences open up a new venue for further studies on volunteers’ traits and SEI. We also suggest that it will be critical to further address the effect of contextual factors on the role of empathy and moral obligation.