TY - GEN

T1 - An Investigation of Students’ Social Entrepreneurial Intentions in Syria

T2 - International Conference on Modernizing Academic Teaching and Research in Business and Economics, MATRE 2016

AU - Medyanik, Olga

AU - Al-Jawni, Farid

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - This paper is a contribution to the developing field of so-called fit models, person—entrepreneurship fit model among them. Such models aim at revealing factors that predict a person’s future being involved in social enterprises and his/her success in them. No work of this kind has been conducted in Syria previously. Here, we present our test of Mair and Noboa’s model (published in 2006, see J. Mair, J. Robinson, & K. Hockerts (Eds.), Social entrepreneurship. New York: Palgrave MacMillan) recently extended by Hockerts (Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2017) which identifies altogether five antecedents determining young people’s SEI: prior experience. empathy, moral obligation, social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and perceived social support. In the test, the empirical data collected from approximately 300 students of Syrian universities business and economics faculties was used. Several hypotheses were tested in course of the study: those described by K. Hockerts and some other authors. It is well known that, on one hand, social entrepreneurship is a matter of importance especially for women and, on the other hand, that one’s understanding of the significance of social activities (as well as one’s estimating of own opportunities and preferences) is developing gradually with age. Besides, social as well as business innovative ventures are launched usually by younger people. Our results support the common wisdom that gender and year of studying are important factors affecting students’ decision to launch a social venture in future. An important aspect of the study is also comparing the SEI of students of Syrian private and state universities in order to find out if there are any behavioral differences between the two groups. No special teaching courses with a social entrepreneurial profile are being taught yet in Syria neither at private nor at the state universities, so no hypotheses about relation between selecting such courses and students’ SEI is included in the study; but the results of our research call for introducing such teaching courses.

AB - This paper is a contribution to the developing field of so-called fit models, person—entrepreneurship fit model among them. Such models aim at revealing factors that predict a person’s future being involved in social enterprises and his/her success in them. No work of this kind has been conducted in Syria previously. Here, we present our test of Mair and Noboa’s model (published in 2006, see J. Mair, J. Robinson, & K. Hockerts (Eds.), Social entrepreneurship. New York: Palgrave MacMillan) recently extended by Hockerts (Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 2017) which identifies altogether five antecedents determining young people’s SEI: prior experience. empathy, moral obligation, social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and perceived social support. In the test, the empirical data collected from approximately 300 students of Syrian universities business and economics faculties was used. Several hypotheses were tested in course of the study: those described by K. Hockerts and some other authors. It is well known that, on one hand, social entrepreneurship is a matter of importance especially for women and, on the other hand, that one’s understanding of the significance of social activities (as well as one’s estimating of own opportunities and preferences) is developing gradually with age. Besides, social as well as business innovative ventures are launched usually by younger people. Our results support the common wisdom that gender and year of studying are important factors affecting students’ decision to launch a social venture in future. An important aspect of the study is also comparing the SEI of students of Syrian private and state universities in order to find out if there are any behavioral differences between the two groups. No special teaching courses with a social entrepreneurial profile are being taught yet in Syria neither at private nor at the state universities, so no hypotheses about relation between selecting such courses and students’ SEI is included in the study; but the results of our research call for introducing such teaching courses.

KW - Measure of fit

KW - Person-entrepreneurship fit (PEF)

KW - Social entrepreneurship intentions (SEI)

KW - Syria

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061969011&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-54419-9_5

DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-54419-9_5

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85061969011

SN - 9783319544182

T3 - Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics

SP - 85

EP - 114

BT - Modernizing Academic Teaching and Research in Business and Economics - International Conference MATRE 2016

A2 - Marx Gómez, Jorge

A2 - Aboujaoude, Marie K.

A2 - Feghali, Khalil

A2 - Mahmoud, Tariq

PB - Springer Nature

Y2 - 8 September 2016 through 9 September 2016

ER -