Abstract
To address the lacuna of how informal institutions like Buddhism impact social entrepreneurship in different regions within a nation, this research draws on the social entrepreneurship literature and the regional Buddhist research to propose a mediating framework where the percentage of Buddhist entrepreneurs in a region is positively associated both with the level of prosocial behaviors such as charity, due to the values of Buddhism, and with the probability of establishing businesses in a less-developed region. It further proposes that charitable behaviors mediate the relationship between the percentage of Buddhist entrepreneurs in a region and establishing
businesses in less-developed regions. This mediating effect is attributed to the mechanism that charitable behaviors absorb the limited resources of entrepreneurs, reducing their resources for establishing businesses in
less-developed regions. We test these hypotheses on nationwide surveys of founders of private enterprises and find support for this mediating view. Broad implications for theoretical and empirical research are discussed.
businesses in less-developed regions. This mediating effect is attributed to the mechanism that charitable behaviors absorb the limited resources of entrepreneurs, reducing their resources for establishing businesses in
less-developed regions. We test these hypotheses on nationwide surveys of founders of private enterprises and find support for this mediating view. Broad implications for theoretical and empirical research are discussed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1197–1217 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Small Business Economics |
Volume | 59 |
Early online date | 24 Dec 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2022 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgementsWe thank the Editor-in-Chief Zoltan J. Acs, David B. Audretsch, the anonymous reviewers, and Shaker A. Zahra and Yong Li for their helpful comments and suggestions.The usual disclaimers apply.
Funding
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Social Science Foundation of China (grant number: 20AGL008), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 72172056) and the General Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province (grant number: 2020SJA0254).
Keywords
- Buddhism
- informal institution
- social entrepreneurship
- Prosocial Behavior
- China