Finance

Internal medicine

Business

Sample (material)

Social entrepreneurship

Meta-analysis

Marketing

Political science

Psychology

Economics

Chemistry

Social enterprise

Public relations

Entrepreneurship

Chromatography

Medicine

Social psychology

Journal of Small Business Management

Social entrepreneurship (SE) is acknowledged as a valuable tool for tackling social problems. Whereas SE intention (SEI) is considered an important prerequisite for founding a social enterprise, empirical research on SEI-antecedents lacks structure and quantitative integration. We use a newly developed framework featuring individual-, social-, and economic-level antecedents of SEI to summarize prior research on SEI in a meta-analysis (k = 21; N = 8697). Results show that our framework is empirically feasible, as significant effects of individual, social, and economic variables on SEI emerge. Furthermore, we find that the national economic stage, sample composition, and SEI-measurement act as moderators.

What motivates social entrepreneurs? A meta-analysis on predictors of the intention to found a social enterprise