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The purpose of this paper is to proffer a reconstructed theoretic model of entrepreneurial generatively that accounts for personal and social identities in the narrative construction of entrepreneurial identity..

The authors followed general analytically structured history processes using the life of Andrew Carnegie to understand how generativity scripts aid in aligning personal and social identities in the formation of entrepreneurial identity.

The authors argue that Carnegie used entrepreneurial generativity as a form of redemptive identity capital during the narrative reconstruction of his entrepreneurial identity.

This paper extends Harvey et al.’s (2011) model of entrepreneurial philanthropy motivation by including forms of self-capital (psychological capital and self-identity capital) as part of the co-construction of entrepreneurial identity and proposing a reconstructed capital theoretic model of entrepreneurial generativity.

Traditionally, the concept of entrepreneurship included a for‐profit bottom line. Recently, however, researchers have begun to explore an adaptation of this model called “social entrepreneurship”; that is, creating organizations for the greater good of a community, region, nation, or the world. These entrepreneurs use money that they made or inherited to establish organizations from a missionary and visionary posture. This is an arena where women have had significant impact, yet little has been written to celebrate their contributions. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of such philanthropy, to suggest where this social ethic might have had its origins, and to provide samples of women who have been entrepreneurial in their social commitment. Suggestions for future research on women's entrepreneurial philanthropy will also be made.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise how various value dimensions of Harambee, the Kenyan culture, affect the fostering of entrepreneurial behaviours. Theoretically, we draw upon perspectives that view culture as a toolkit and use cultural variables provided by Hofstede to examine the links between national culture and entrepreneurial endeavours in an African context.

The paper is based on review and synthesis of accessible secondary sources (published research, country-specific reports, policy documents, firm-level empirical evidences, etc.) on the topic and related areas to understand and advance research propositions on the link between enterprising efforts and national culture specific to the Kenyan context.

Several theoretical propositions are offered on themes of collective reliance, social responsibility, enterprising, resource mobilisation and political philanthropy to establish relationships, both positive and negative, between values of Harambee and entrepreneurial behaviours. Further, the study provides initial insights into how actors blend both collectivistic and emergent individualistic orientations and display collective identity in the process of mobilising resources and engaging in entrepreneurship.

The conceptual framework presented bears a considerable relevance to the advancing theory, policy and practice associated with the national culture and entrepreneurial behaviour in the African context and has potential to generate valuable insights.

This original study provides a springboard for studying the relationship between African cultural context and entrepreneurial behaviours.

Based on the stakeholder theory, this study aims to investigate Chinese entrepreneurial firms’ selective satisfaction of Stakeholder demands on corporate social performance (CSP).

This study uses the survey data from privately owned companies in China, which is collected by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce in three years of 2006, 2008 and 2010.

This paper suggests a contingency model of CSP: entrepreneurial firms selectively perform corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues rather than all CSP dimensions. Furthermore, this study illustrates that international operations, such as overseas exports, would strengthen the above positive relationships between foreign ownership and selected CSR issues.

This study contributes to the understanding of CSR activities in Chinese entrepreneurial firms, which are more selective when performing social issues. In addition to the theoretical contribution, this work suggests a contingency model to the stakeholder theory, indicating the moderating factors to the entrepreneurial firms’ motivation to perform specific social responsibilities.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate the programme of philanthropy arising from the work of the Shirley Foundation, with particular reference to its impact in addressing issues related to autism.

The paper is based on the 2017 evaluation of The Shirley Foundation 1996–2016 by Aperio Group (Europe) Limited entitled 20 Years of Grant Making Autism and Information Technology: An Overview of The Foundation’s Impact (Pepin, 2017). The evaluation included interviews with Dame Stephanie Shirley CH (the Foundation’s founder), a documentation review and a survey of key grantees.

The evaluation concluded that the funding achieved both grantee purposes and those of The Shirley Foundation. The projects funded generally produced outcomes that made a difference and grant-making and monitoring processes were regarded, on the whole, as efficient.

The evaluation demonstrates the value of an innovative, catalytic, social entrepreneurial approach to funding to achieve impact.

Drawing on the functional structural systems theory of Niklas Luhmann and the theory of colonisation of the social lifeworld advanced by Jurgen Habermas, it is argued that the Big Society project in the UK is about the creation of an alternative non-state welfare infrastructure by the linking of wealthy donors with opportunities to engage in venture philanthropy in the third sector. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The paper outlines key features of Luhmann's theory relating to autopoiesis and structural coupling to illustrate its conceptual strength in making the colonisation process visible.

The paper illustrates the ways in which system imperatives underpinning the colonisation process absorb and subordinate public activism to narrow market principles forcing the third sector to communicate in the language of the market rather than caritas.

The real implication of these developments for the character of the voluntary sector requires further critical examination not only because the state's enduring commitment to welfare may be in question but also for the growing significance of entrepreneurial philanthropy in shaping the character of volunteering and charitable activities and welfare relationships.

The paper applies Luhmann's theory relating to autopoiesis and structural coupling to make key features of government colonisation of the third sector visible.

Insights into the roots of social enterprise from before the term was adopted are provided by examining histories of charitable service and comparing current understandings of social enterprise. Social enterprise models of welfare provision are evidenced from the seventeenth century onwards. Persistent themes are identified that provide insights for current practice and understanding.

This historiography examines interpretations from 1905 to the present day of examples of welfare provision between two watershed points: 1600, just prior to the Poor Laws and 1908, when the Old Age Pensions Act shifted emphasis in public sector provision.

Activities that would nowadays be termed social enterprise are evidenced in histories of charitable philanthropy covering each century since 1600. Prevailing attitudes uncritically demarcated deserving and undeserving poor. Histories contributed to a heroic narrative of social entrepreneurs, describing activities dependent on well-networked, politically active individuals that rarely continued beyond their involvement. The political environment was recognised to influence the types of organisations, governance and resourcing.

The historiography takes examples from three centuries between 1600 and1908 but is not comprehensive. Recurrent themes are identified for further research.

Social enterprise is a twenty-first-century label but not a new phenomenon. Identification of prevailing themes provides insights for the understanding of social enterprises in the twenty-first century.

This study aims to examine how comprehensive performance measurement systems (CPMS) influence entrepreneurial orientation, market-focussed learning (MFL) and employees’ perceptions of firm performance within a service-provision context. It also considers the moderating effect of low and high levels of perceived market-turbulence (low-turbulence environments [LMT] vs highly turbulent environments [HMT]) on the relationships between these concepts.

PLS-SEM was used to test the hypothesised relationships using survey responses from 198 employees of a leading multi-branch travel agency in Iran.

The findings demonstrate that CPMS positively influence MFL and, in doing so, have a positive effect on perceptions of firm performance. However, the findings also suggest that CPMS negatively influence entrepreneurial orientation, and therefore can also negatively influence perceptions of firm performance. Further, the relationships between CPMS, entrepreneurial orientation, MFL and firm performance are stronger for HMT when compared to LMT for all relationships.

Industry managers should adapt their CPMS to include measures specific to intra-organisational entrepreneurship and innovation and should pursue greater understanding of changing customer preferences.

This study highlights the importance of MFL as a means of avoiding the negative impact of underdeveloped market research on performance in the turbulent Iranian context. Contrary to previous literature, it provides an example of how CPMS can negatively influence entrepreneurial orientation in such environments.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of religious entrepreneurs on bank loans and further examine the moderating effect of entrepreneurial gender.

In 2010, the Chinese national survey reported the different religious beliefs of private entrepreneurs. Using this set of survey data, the authors obtain a sample of 4,330 Chinese family firms and employ the Tobit regression approach to examine the relationship between the amount of bank loans and the religious background of entrepreneurs. In addition, the authors use the propensity score matching approach to address the endogeneity issue.

Based on the data from the 2010 national survey, the authors document that the amount of bank loans is significantly higher for Chinese family firms with religious entrepreneurs than for their counterparts. This finding suggests that religious individuals are inclined to be more ethical and honest and Chinese family firms with religious entrepreneurs transfer soft information to banks, and eventually lenders favor religious entrepreneurs with more bank loans. Moreover, the authors reveal that the amount of bank loans is significantly larger for firms with female entrepreneurs than for those without female entrepreneurs. In addition, entrepreneurial gender attenuates the positive relationship between religious entrepreneurs and bank loans.

This study is one of few studies to examine the influence of an entrepreneur’s religious belief on bank credit decisions and adds to previous studies about religious influence on corporate behavior by revealing a positive association between religious entrepreneurs and bank loans. Moreover, this study validates that female entrepreneurs exert positive effects on the amount of bank loans and attenuate the positive influence of religious entrepreneurs on bank loans.

The growing prevalence of social entrepreneurship has been coupled with an increasing number of so-called “impact investors”. However, much remains to be learned about this nascent class of investors. To address the dearth of scholarly attention to impact investing, this study seeks to answer four questions that are central to understanding the phenomenon. What are the defining characteristics of impact investing? Do impact investors differ from traditional classes of investors and, if so, how? What are the motivations that drive impact investment? And, what criteria do impact investors use when evaluating potential investments?

A partially inductive study based on semi-structured interviews with 31 investors and ethnographic observation was conducted to explore how impact investors differ from other classes of investors in their motivations and unique criteria used to evaluate ventures seeking investment.

This study reveals that impact investors represent a unique class of investors that differs from socially responsible investing, from other types of for-profit investors, such as venture capitalists and angel investors, and from traditional philanthropists. The varied motivations of impact investors and the criteria they use to evaluate investments are identified.

Despite the growing practitioner and media attention to impact investing, several foundational issues remain unaddressed. This study takes the first steps toward shedding light on this new realm of early-stage venture investing and clarifying its role in larger efforts of social responsibility.