Motivations of Social Entrepreneurs

Study of social entrepreneurship from the psychological perspective views the creation of ventures as stemming from individual characteristics, motivations, and enterprise (i.e. Baum & Locke, 2004; Beugre, 2011; Brandstatter, 2011; Shane, Locke, & Collins, 2003; Tan, Williams, & Tan, 2005). Consistent with this perspective, the fundamental difference between conventional and social entrepreneurship is that while exploiting opportunities for profit maximization is the main objective of conventional entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs attempt to maximize the social wealth created by their ventures. However, such a perspective is simplified and fails to capture the continuum of entrepreneurial motives that comprise social entrepreneurial activity. Nonetheless, the psychological perspective indicates the importance of the role of entrepreneurs themselves in effecting the phenomenon.

Muhammad Yunus, who is the founder of Grameen Bank and perhaps the most famous protagonist in the realm of social enterprise, provides support for such an argument. A field trip to a poor village in 1974 led this Bangladeshi economist from Chittagong University to question the economics he was teaching when he realized how existing institutional frameworks consistently marginalized those at the bottom of the social pyramid. From his own resources, he lent the equivalent of $27 to a group of women who made bamboo furniture, a step that would eventually culminate in the creation of The Grameen Bank in 1983 (Concordia College, n. d.). According to Yunus and Weber (2011), “the main difference between starting a social business and starting a regular business is the core motivation of the entrepreneur” (p. 57). “It begins with the idealism and hope that are deeply ingrained in all human beings” (p. 27). Dann and Cohen’s (1991) seminal work on the sociology of tourism also articulates that meaning, hence motivations, lies at the core of all sociological understanding. In that sense, the roots of exploring social entrepreneurial motivation to better comprehend the phenomenon had been laid long ago even in the field of tourism. The present chapter builds on these suggestions by exploring the case of two tourism social entrepreneurs in India—Gopinath Parayil of The Blue Yonder and Inir Pinheiro of Grassroutes. Given that the continuum of entrepreneurial motivations ranges from wealth creation to the altruistic objectives of socially-oriented entrepreneurship, the authors discuss Gopi and Inir’s motivations under two categories: traditional entrepreneurial motivations and value-oriented motivations.