Understanding Social Entrepreneurs' Motivations

This study examines the motivations of social bricoleurs, small scale social entrepreneurs (SE's) who address local unmet social needs. Little is known about the antecedents or motivations of social bricolage. We use life stories methodology, a form of narrative analysis based in grounded theory, to examine entrepreneurial motivations and to develop a typology of the motivations. Based on data collected both in person and through telephone and Skype conversations with almost 100 social entrepreneurs from six continents (North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia), SE's across the world share similar motivations. Most of the SE's motivations are driven by pull factors that are result from internal choices and a desire to accomplish positive social goals. Pull factors relate to emotional motivation based on life events in the past or in the present. A typology of the pull factors was developed to demonstrate the different categories of pull motivations, including life events in childhood or early adulthood, social awareness since childhood, and ideological motivations that drove the bricoleurs to start a venture to solve social problems. Some SE's are motivated by push factors that made staying in their jobs less than desirable, e.g., boredom, lack of fulfillment, limited advancement opportunities or overall job dissatisfaction. The study's findings add to the literature by highlighting the interrelations between SE's motivations and opportunity recognition and by creating an expanded typology of SE motivations.