The Manifestation of Entrepreneurial Orientation in the Social Entrepreneurship Context

Abstract

This study extends theorisation of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the social entrepreneurship context by introducing firm performance as a construct for examining social enterprises (SEs) EO. Drawing on EO and firm performance research indicating that EO is related to a better firm performance, this paper argues that EO in SEs is positively related to organisational performance. This research empirically studies 303 social enterprises in Saudi Arabia and develops three hypotheses that examine the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and social entrepreneurs' firm performance. The results show that innovativeness and proactiveness, but not risk-taking, are positively associated with firm performance. Thus, whilst SEs cover a wide range of business activities there is generally a positive effect of EO across the contexts investigated. Also, this research found that EO can be used as a mechanism to overcome constraints imposed by limited resources in an environment where new opportunities rarely occur.

Social entrepreneurship orientation and performance in non-profit organizations

“…In sharing this opinion, Anderson et al (2015) present a reconceptualization of EO as a multidimensional construct containing two dimensions (entrepreneurial behaviors id est innovation and proactiveness, and an attitude towards risk-taking) with both essential to the existence of EO. Furthermore, while studies interrelated with EO in the non-profit sector may adopt conceptual (Kusa, 2016), qualitative (Lurtz & Kreutzer, 2017) or quantitative (Chen & Hsu, 2013;Pearce et al, 2010) approaches, in all such cases, the dimensions of innovation, proactiveness and the accepting risk play central roles (Alarifi et al, 2019).…”

“…Despite the proliferation of research studies on EO (Kraus et al, 2019;Lumpkin et al, 2013;Martens et al, 2016;Voss et al, 2005;Wales et al, 2020), the study of EO in the non-profit sector still remains at an initial phase and lacking in scale. Nevertheless, social entrepreneurship has come in for rising levels of attention both from the academic perspective and the practical point of view (Alarifi et al, 2019;Halberstadt et al, 2020;Lurtz & Kreutzer, 2017;Morris et al, 2011;Pearce et al, 2010;Turpin & Shier, 2020). Thus, there is relatively little knowledge on the motivations that lead NPOs to engage in entrepreneurial behaviors (Coombes et al, 2011).…”

“…Given that set out above, there is no doubt as to the relevance the literature attributes to an empirical study of this type. Therefore, to respond to the research question and obtain the proposed objective, we opted to apply the SEO scale proposed by Kraus et al (2017) which spans the original EO dimensions of innovation, proactivity and risk-taking into the context of social entrepreneurship (Alarifi et al, 2019).…”

Social entrepreneurship in Saint-Petersburg as green economy aspect

“…It implements the targeted nature of the provision of services, involving non-state resources in this process (grants from public funds, funds of commercial organizations and donations) [39]. In addition, social-oriented not-for-profit organizations adapt more quickly to new social conditions [40], generate new ideas, adapt to changed rules. All this allows them to offer different social services with high quality [41], and to provide them with, which is quite important, for free.…”

Entrepreneurial orientation and performance in a developing country: Strategic entrepreneurship as a mediator

“…It allows them to develop innovative approaches (Lorca & Avrichir, 2020). According to Alarifi, Robson, and Kromidha (2019), attempted to identify the correlation between social entrepreneurs' firm performance and EO in social enterprises in Saudi Arabia. Both proactiveness and innovativeness positively influence the performance of the firms.…”