The relationship between commercial entrepreneurs' social and financial/business interests

Abstract

For-profit commercial entrepreneurs often pursue social goals and contribute excessively to social well-being. Still, the knowledge on the relationship between entrepreneurs' business motives and motives behind social value creation is very limited. The motivational literature

focuses on the business aspects of motivations behind starting a venture and on enterprises founded specifically for reaching social goals.

This study theoretically and empirically examines whether the business motives and the motives to create social values can be distinguished within entrepreneurial motivation, and how these two motives relate to each other. Therefore, based on Vroom's expectancy theory and a sample of 195 Hungarian entrepreneurs, the authors examine the interactions between the three matching elements of business and social interests of entrepreneurial motivational forces; business and social valances (passions and work values), expectancies (self-efficacies), and instrumentalities (perceptions of societal and regulatory support).

The results imply that entrepreneurs having strong business motives, i.e., those entrepreneurs who are more likely to succeed in their business endeavors, would, relative to the extent of their entrepreneurial success, express little interest in social value creation. On the other hand, entrepreneurs having strong interest in social value creation are not highly likely to achieve business success; i.e., they would possess relatively little financial resources to fund their social goals.

Entrepreneurship contributes heavily to economic development and growth. In the private sector, a fundamental goal of most enterprises is to make profit and maximize owners' value. Besides, there are social enterprises whose main underlying drive is the creation of social value. Still, most ventures are hybrid as business enterprises often engage in socially responsible behaviour that is referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the literature. Social and business enterprises engaging in CSR mitigate social problems that traditional for-profit entrepreneurs failed to attend to.

In the past century, motivation, as the individual-related pattern of motivating factors to act, has become a central notion in psychology and organisational behaviour. Motivation was suggested to essentially altering the work-related efforts and increase the positive outcomes of actions. Entrepreneurial motivation represents a commitment to the business, its success, and growth. The motives behind entrepreneurial motivations can be multifold. In the present paper, the authors distinguish two basic aspects of entrepreneur motives; the business motives behind entrepreneurial value creation (business prone entrepreneurial motivational force) and the motives to create social values (social prone entrepreneurial motivational force). Business motives for example are important antecedents of business prone entrepreneurial motivation or behaviour but do not seem to be its primary driver. Other mentioned motives of entrepreneurial value creation can be overcoming challenges or being innovative and independent. Also, entrepreneurs typically take social goals, such as supporting the local community or hiring people with disabilities, into account during their operation. Social and business prone entrepreneurial motivational forces seem to coexist, still the knowledge on the relationship between entrepreneurs' business motives and motives to create social values is very limited. The connection between the two motives is important to study as higher business and social prone entrepreneurial motivational forces arguably leads to excess business or social value creation, respectively.