Who is the Guardian Angel of Social Entrepreneurship? - A qualitative study on sustainable incubators' effect on social entrepreneurs' work engagement
Abstract: One of the many solutions needed to transition our society into a sustainable one, is social entrepreneurs, working with commercial business models and tools to come about positive societal change. Today, there are various external support systems for social entrepreneurs in Sweden, including incubator programs specifically designed for social entrepreneurs and businesses with a sustainability mission. This thesis aims to investigate how these specialized incubators affect the work engagement of the social entrepreneurs incubated, using the Job Demands-Resource model (JD-R model). The study was conducted as a cross-sectional study, through qualitative methods. Empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews both with social entrepreneurs in sustainable and general incubators. The findings show that social entrepreneurs incubated in sustainable incubators experienced an increase in the prerequisites for work engagement, based on JD-R theory. More specifically, findings show that social entrepreneurs experience an increase in job resources, as an effect of being incubated at sustainable incubators. However, this increase in job resources also applies to social entrepreneurs partaking in general incubators. Moreover, the social entrepreneurs partaking in the general incubators, experience an increase in job demands, due to the increase in workload stemming from partaking in an incubator, which is viewed as a burden. The increase in workload for the social entrepreneurs partaking in sustainable incubators is not viewed negatively and is therefore not seen to cause an increase in job demands. Finally, this study finds that job crafting and increased task significance occur uniquely as effects for social entrepreneurs participating in sustainable incubators, causing the social entrepreneurs' ambitions to grow and enhancing their focus on sustainability.
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