From Agency To Social Impact: The Effect of Social Class and Dominance Orientation on Social Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy

Social entrepreneurs simultaneously strive for social problem-solving and economic value creation, ultimately aiming to improve the lives of marginalized individuals. Given the challenging nature of social entrepreneurial activities and careers, research into the factors influencing potential entrepreneurs’ self-assessed capability in the domain of social entrepreneurship, or social entrepreneurial self-efficacy(SESE), has gained notable attention. The present study investigates social class as a crucial yet underexplored predictor of SESE, which in turn facilitates potential entrepreneurs’ engagement in social enterprise creation behavior(SECB). Additionally, we examine the moderating role of social dominance orientation(SDO), which reflects individuals’ preference for resource-based social hierarchies, in the relationship between social class and SESE. Using a two-wave survey data from 144 potential entrepreneurs in South Korea, we tested a moderated mediation model to examine our hypotheses. Results indicate that social class positively correlates with SESE, which enhances SECB. Furthermore, SDO moderates both the positive relationship between social class and SESE and the positive indirect effect of social class on SECB via SESE. This study sheds light on the significant role of social class in fostering high class individuals’ engagement in social entrepreneurship, potentially through the agency mechanism captured by SESE in our data. Moreover, the moderating effect of SDO suggests that a psychological support for egalitarianism amplifies the positive effect of social class on social entrepreneurial engagement. Our findings provide practical insights for entrepreneurial educators in developing effective recruitment and promotion strategies that motivate high class individuals to enhance the wellfare of disadvantaged groups through social enterprise creation.