Social Enterprise and Technological Innovations: An Empirical Investigation

• Main Authors: Yung-Hsiang Chang, 張詠翔
• Other Authors: 何彥臻
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/cgi-bin/gs32/gsweb.cgi/login?o=dnclcdr&s=id=%22107NCHU5230038%22.&searchmode=basic

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 科技管理研究所 === 107 === Social entrepreneurial organization (SEO)—Organizations with the vision and mission to tackle social issues—attract significant attention and research interest from various domains. Technological innovation with reproducibility is a potential avenue for social entrepreneurs who intend to address social issues. The investigation of SEO’s pursuit of technological innovation, therefore, provides a unique perspective for social entrepreneurial research. In this paper, we compiled a global sample of more than three hundred SEOs selected by the Schwab Foundation and empirically verify the critical factors related to technological innovation alongside social entrepreneurship. Our empirical models show SEOs with a broader scope of social issues and geographical regions are more likely to participate in technological innovations. However, adopting the non-profit legal form, being local-embedded, and performing a larger number of activities reduce the likelihood. Partnering with market-business increase the likelihood, and yet partnering with universities affect the pursuit of technological innovation only when the social entrepreneur has a business degree or when the SEO has the non-profit legal form. We provide a discussion of the implications of our test results and suggestions for future research.