Entrepreneurial Orientation of Social Entrepreneurs in Developing Economies

Abstract

While abundant evidence links entrepreneurial orientation (EO) to enhanced firm performance, minimal academic knowledge exists in regard to its manifestation in social contexts. Furthermore, the majority of studies using the construct in developing economies have failed to question if the proposed EO model remains equally robust in these contexts, or if it is in need of a conceptual renovation. In response to the knowledge gap that practitioners and researchers face, this study aims to contribute information as to how social enterprises in developing economies exhibit EO in their pursuit of their social and economic missions.

Over the period of three months, twenty semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out with social and commercial enterprises from diverse business sectors in the case study region of Cambodia. Interviews were paired with a quantitative likert-type scale adapted from the Covin and Slevin (1989) EO scale. A revolutionary approach was taken to analyze EO within social enterprises, incorporating how internal organizational structures plays into the manifestation of EO. Results from the study show that the developing economy of Cambodia has significant implications on current understandings of EO and its manifestation in social contexts.