Cultural determinants of social entrepreneurship

This thesis provides an explorative account of the cultural determinants of social entrepreneurship. Nine hypotheses concerning cultural factors are formulated. Data from the 2009 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the first harmonized global dataset including social entrepreneurship measurements, and the World and European Value survey are combined, resulting in approximately 122.000 individual data points for a total of 34 countries. Multilevel models are estimated to compare social entrepreneurs with both their commercial counterparts and the non-entrepreneurial population. The results show that culture has a considerable influence on the probability that an individual engages in social entrepreneurship relative to no entrepreneurship. Specifically, there is evidence that confidence in public institutions, self-expression orientated values, prominence of religion, generalized trust and risk-aversion are significantly related to social entrepreneurial activity. Furthermore, this research supports the application of multilevel model techniques in the field of social entrepreneurship.