The Macro-level Determinants of Social Entrepreneurship and the Differences Found in Their Associations Across the Different Phases of Social Entrepreneurship:

Similar to preceding empirical studies, this paper examines a series of macro-level determinants on the prevalence of social entrepreneurship, using the dataset of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2009 Special Study, covering the prevalence of social entrepreneurship across 49 GEM member countries. However, where this study diverges from that of extant literature, is in the examination of how the effects of these determinants may differ across different phases of social entrepreneurship, namely nascent social entrepreneurship and new social entrepreneurship. As such this paper enlists three dependent variables to predict: Early-stage social entrepreneurship, nascent social entrepreneurship and new social entrepreneurship. Multiple regression analyses are run tot test the influences a total of four potential determinants (economic development, government activism, gender equality and prevalence of commercial entrepreneurship). Our results find that only gender equality and the prevalence of commercial entrepreneurship have significant associations to social entrepreneurship. Additionally, this paper provides evidence showing that there can be differences in the associations of drivers with the two different phases of social entrepreneurship.