The Journal of Small Business Management (JSBM) and the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), in collaboration with a team of leading Humane Entrepreneurship researchers, are pleased to present this special issue examining “Contemporary Perspectives on Social and Humane Entrepreneurship.” This special issue comes at a crucial moment as we sit at the precipice of life in a post-COVID world. The articles to follow embody the global movement toward a more humane and just economy and world. This special issue’s format combines three articles approved by the guest editors, followed by three articles from JSBM’s current inventory of accepted work in the domain of social and humane entrepreneurship.
Humane entrepreneurship special issue articles
The first article, by Santos, Neumeyer, Caetano, and Liñán, aims to examine the role of entrepreneurial intentions and motivations in the interplay between personal values strongly aligned with humane entrepreneurship self-employment career options. Results suggest that entrepreneurial intentions function as a mechanism that triggers self-employment decisions for individuals with humane-oriented personal values. This effect is more substantial when they engage in opportunity-based entrepreneurship.
The second article, by Kim, Hornsby, Enríquez, Bae, and El Tarabishy, presents a humane entrepreneurial framework for corporate entrepreneurship, outlining the process of creating Humane Entrepreneurship focusing on the people side of the business by introducing the elements of high-performance work systems (HPWS) to a company’s entrepreneurial strategy. Building on HPWS and EO research, their model suggests that a “humane” approach to managing employees is a key antecedent to creating and maintaining EO and that humane organizational practices lead to sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation in companies.
The third article, by Khurana, Ghura, and Dutta, examines the impact of religion on entrepreneurs’ humane orientation. They found deep connections between Humane Entrepreneurship and religion, with entrepreneurs indicating a pervasive influence of religion on all Humane Entrepreneurship construct dimensions. They also detected meaningful differences across religious groups about the impact of religion on Humane Entrepreneurship’s different dimensions.
JSBM social and human entrepreneurship articles
The fourth article, by Peake and Eddleston, examines social responsibility’s microfoundations in the small business setting. They 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. Results demonstrate that male and female entrepreneurs are similarly motivated by enlightened self-interest, but the sorting education model better explains male entrepreneurs’ social responsibility.
The fifth article, by Kruse, Wach, and Wegge, uses a newly developed framework featuring individual, social, and economic level antecedents of social entrepreneurship intention (SEI). They present a data-powered framework that is empirically feasible, as significant effects of individual, social, and economic variables on SEI emerge. The national economic stage, sample composition, and SEI measurement act as moderators.
The sixth article, by Parente, El Tarabishy, Botti, Vesci, and Feola, addresses some preliminary issues to develop a measurement scale to validate firm Humane Entrepreneurial Orientation (HEO). The article defines HEO beginning with reviewing the main literature regarding its three components: Entrepreneurial Orientation, Sustainable Orientation, and Humane Resource Orientation. The article thereby makes some contributions about how and at which organizational level the HEO components can be measured.
Conclusion
JSBM continues to champion work in humane entrepreneurship. The field’s visibility holds great potential to effect significant change in the business ecosystem. That is why JSBM understands its mandate to uplift the impact of humane entrepreneurship research. Although publication in the journal is highly competitive, scholars are encouraged to submit future work relating to social and humane entrepreneurship topics to the journal for consideration. Special thanks are offered to the JSBM editorial Board and the many anonymous peer reviewers who contributed to the development and refinement of the work presented in this issue.