Is It so Severe for Social Entrepreneurship in a Transitional Economy? The Role of Work-Related Wellbeing and Political Connection in Shaping the Exit Intention.

In the context of a transitional economy, there are much more studies with a heroic characterization of social entrepreneurs, whereas there is limited exploration of their less positive stories. A range of studies tried to address this issue, although very few delved into the "inner layer" (work-related mental health) to unveil the mechanism of how social entrepreneurs develop their intention to quit their businesses. With a sample of 196 social business owners from China, this research focuses on the prosocial motivation of social entrepreneurs as well as its impacts on their work-related wellbeing and thus their business exit intention. With the partial least squares structural equation modeling, this research finds that prosocial motivation decreased entrepreneurs' partial work-related wellbeing, increasing their exit intention, and the mediating effects among the three components of work-related wellbeing were different. Furthermore, this research finds that work-related wellbeing's impact on exit intention was largely stronger for the social entrepreneurs without political connections.

More Prosocial, More Ephemeral? Exploring the Formation of a Social Entrepreneur's Exit Intention via Life Satisfaction.

This study was designed to test if satisfaction with health and personal financial wellbeing mediates the relationship between prosocial motivations and exit intentions among social entrepreneurs. Using a sample of 317 social entrepreneurs, the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that prosocial motivation decreased the financial satisfaction of entrepreneurs, which increased their exit intentions. However, health satisfaction did not have a mediating effect on the relationship between prosocial motivation and exit intention. Moreover, adopting the multi-group analysis (MGA) technique, we found that the negative impact of prosocial motivation on financial satisfaction was stronger for males than for females, suggesting male entrepreneurs were more likely to experience lower financial satisfaction caused by prosocial motivation than female entrepreneurs. There was no evidence that gender moderated the relationship between prosocial motivation and health satisfaction.

More Prosocial, More Ephemeral? The Role of Work-Related Wellbeing and Gender in Incubating Social Entrepreneurs' Exit Intention.

Why does social entrepreneurship tend to live so shortly? A range of studies tried to answer this question, although very few delved into the "inner layer" (psychological status) to unveil how social entrepreneurs decide to quit. Accordingly, focusing on prosocial motivation of social entrepreneurs and its impact on their work-related wellbeing and then their business exit intention, we conducted this empirical research. Furthermore, gender differences are involved based on relevant calls for in-depth investigation. With a sample of 301 respondents in China, deploying the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we found prosocial motivation decreases entrepreneurs' work-related wellbeing, which in turn, increases entrepreneurial exit intention. Furthermore, adopting the multi-group analysis (MGA) technique, we uncovered that the impact of prosocial motivation on work-related wellbeing largely is stronger for males. Our research thus contributes to the growing research and knowledge on social entrepreneurship in terms of individual personality traits and how they impact a social entrepreneur's psychological status and thus their intention of exiting the social business. This study's further theoretical and practical implications, as well as its limitations and thus future research directions, are discussed at the end.