Conditioned to care: Gender differences in entrepreneurs’ socially responsible behaviors

ABSTRACT

Relatively little research examines the microfoundations of social responsibility in the small business setting, despite the demonstrated importance of entrepreneurs’ socially responsible behavior to their communities. Prior research suggests that although men and women are similar in their propensities to engage in helping behaviors, gender remains an important consideration. We integrate the sorting model from the civic engagement literature and enlightened self-interest with gender role theory to examine why and how entrepreneurs vary in socially responsible behaviors. Our results demonstrate that male and female entrepreneurs are similarly motivated by enlightened self-interest, but the sorting model of education better explains male entrepreneurs’ social responsibility.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• entrepreneurship
• social responsibility
• small business
• education

Notes

¹ The list of work from which all items for the dependent variable were adapted is available from the authors on request.