Do They Reason the Same? Comparing Intention and Behavior of For-profit and Social Entrepreneurs

We develop a structural equation model for business and social entrepreneurial intention and behavior to understand similarities and differences for-profit and social entrepreneurs. We conduct a conjoint field experiment to collect data in order to test how the mutual (social) entrepreneurial intentions relate to five dimensions of behavior: Knowledge relatedness, future predictability, personal value correspondence, social performance, and economic performance. Using an innovative research design with 1,544 assessments nested within the actions of 193 respondents, we find that individuals with a higher level of social entrepreneurial intentions are more likely to pursue opportunities than respondents with for-profit intentions. Moreover, we find proof that participants with intense social entrepreneurial intentions are more likely to act on opportunities with higher impact on society and a closer correspondence with their personal values. They are also more willing to engage in opportunities even if the future development is less predictable or if they lack relevant knowledge for the area.