亲社会动机对社会创业双重导向的影响机理研究——市场化程度与工作经验隶属性的调节作用模型

How Prosocial Motivation Affects the Dual Orientations of Social Entrepreneurship? The Moderating Roles of Marketization and Prior Working Experience

本文基于社会创业由现象归纳向理论驱动的假设检验研究过渡的理论背景,以我国社会创业者为研究对象,用215份问卷数据实证检验了社会创业者的亲社会动机、社会创业竞争与公益双重导向间的关系,探究并检验了社会创业过程前端"动机—决策"的作用机理问题。研究发现,亲社会动机促进双重导向实现,但过程中此关系受所在地区市场化程度和社会创业者先前工作经验隶属性的影响:市场化程度正向调节亲社会动机对竞争导向的影响,负向调节亲社会动机对公益导向的影响;工作经验隶属性(体制内经验)提升了亲社会动机对双重导向的影响作用。本文探究并验证了社会创业如何发生这一前端过程的基础理论问题,对挖掘本土情境下社会创业者行为背后的理性规律具有启示。

In recent years, the practice of social entrepreneurship is booming all over the world. The focus of theoretical research has gradually shifted from inductive and descriptive research such as concept analysis, feature description and case analysis to hypothesis testing research driven by theory, which has greatly promoted the theoretical construction in the field of social entrepreneurship research. However, there are two key problems that hinder the theoretical construction and practical cognition. The one is the contextual differences in the concept and types of social entrepreneurship at the organizational level. The other is that there is currently no valid explanation in terms of how altruistic mission can strike a balance between the competitive orientation determined by economic identity and the charity orientation determined by social identity. This will undoubtedly impose a great impact on the refining of consensus views and the process of theoretical construction in the field of social entrepreneurship.Fortunately, existing studies have shown that the concept and types of social entrepreneurs at the individual level have more consensus than that at the organizational level. Therefore, if social entrepreneurs are taken as the subjects, it is easier to investigate their motivation and decision-making and to explore the unique characteristics of the process during which social entrepreneurship creates social value by economic means, so as to avoid the impact of contextual differences on the jointly reached conclusion. Moreover, the research on the relationship among the motivation, decision-making and influencing factors of social entrepreneurs before the establishment of organizations has not been paid enough attention, and especially, empirical tests driven by theory are lacking. Before the establishment of the organization, what drives social entrepreneurs to start the practice? How can the altruistic core mission affect the realization of the dual orientation of competitor and social orientation? Which internal and external factors will affect this process? These have not been clearly answered. The exploration of these questions is of positive significance for both refining consensus views and promoting the construction of social entrepreneurship theory.Based on this background, this paper, under the premise of prosocial motivation, examines the mechanism of "motivation → decision" in the beginning stage of social entrepreneurship. Building on 215 questionnaires of local social entrepreneurs in China, this paper explores how social entrepreneurs’ prosocial motivation affects the dual orientations of social entrepreneurship, and how marketization and prior working experience moderate the above relationship. Results show that prosocial motivation, namely, the inclusive social entrepreneurship motivation, positively affects both competitor and social orientations. Empirical tests are taken to study the compatibility and coordination between the dual orientations. Social entrepreneurship motivation and the dual orientation are not simply in linear relation, which is subject to marketization and prior working experience. Marketization positively moderates the relationship between prosocial motivation and competitor orientation, and negatively moderates that between prosocial motivation and social orientation. Compared with external factors(marketization), personal factors of social entrepreneurs(prior working experience) are more conducive to the dual orientations. This paper has the following theoretical contributions. Firstly, it explores the common characteristics and universal laws of social entrepreneurs, and breaks through the restrictions of trait theory on the construction of social entrepreneurship theory. Secondly, it delves into the internal mechanism of prosocial motivation’s moderation of egoism and altruism conflict logic in competitor and social orientation through empirical study, solves the problem that few focuses are put by the previous phenomenon-driven research on the process before the establishment of the social entrepreneurship organization, and provides new research contexts and samples to deal with the lack of attention paid by system logic research to the compatibility and complementarity of different logics. Thirdly, the empirical results at the individual level of social entrepreneurs are different from the existing research findings of social enterprises, which is conducive to generating new and valuable research questions, and is instructive on the construction idea of the social entrepreneurship theory of "motivation → behavior → result." This paper has the following practical contributions. Firstly, it guides social entrepreneurs to focus on the organic integration of previous experience and specific projects on the basis of prosocial motivation. Secondly, the government should strengthen system construction by making full use of the current management experience of welfare enterprises, private non-enterprise units and social organizations to establish social entrepreneurship management methods according to local conditions. Thirdly, theorists, commercial enterprises, potential entrepreneurs, the general public and other subjects need to make concerted efforts with social entrepreneurship participants and government in promoting the sustainable development of social entrepreneurship.