Social Entrepreneurial Motivation: An Exploration of the Antecedents Based on The Life Story Method

Abstract: Investigating motivation to create a social enterprise is a continuing concern within entrepreneurship which was expressed in previous studies. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to explore the antecedents of social entrepreneurial motivation and the trigger events that motivated the social entrepreneur to start a social enterprise. The life story method guided in the data collection and analysis process. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with social entrepreneurs in Germany. The study concludes that all participants were motivated by pull factors influenced by relationships, past social and work experiences. The trigger event to finally decide for a social enterprise creation happened either at the same time or after the motivation was developed. Other factors that influenced the decision were financial security, social support, self-confidence and passion. The theoretical implications for future research are that social entrepreneurs can be motivated to solve a social issue at a trigger event but need to consider the existence of fundamental factors at the time they decide for social entrepreneurship. Therefore, a model was contributed for future investigations in social entrepreneurial motivation. Finally, this study contributes with empirical insights to the complexity of social entrepreneurial motivation to start up in entrepreneurship research.