The role of social entrepreneurship for youth purpose development

ABSTRACT

Despite the burgeoning research on social entrepreneurship in recent years, there is limited research on youths as a context for theorizing. This article examines the influence of social entrepreneurship on youth development through the positive youth development perspective. It explores how youth participation in social entrepreneurial activities helps develop their sense of purpose in life. Using data from semi-structured interviews with 27 youths and participant observations, this article demonstrated that social entrepreneurship contributes to youth purpose development by facilitating social conscience, prosocial connectedness, capability and personal agency development and how these manifest in different stages of youth purpose commitment.

KEYWORDS:

• Social entrepreneurship
• social enterprise
• youth
• purpose
• positive youth development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dalphine Ong

Dalphine Ong is currently a postgraduate student in the Department of Social Administration and Justice, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, University of Malaya. Her doctoral research focuses on social entrepreneurship and youth development.

Liang Shang

Liang Shang, PhD is Research Associate in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research focuses on social entrepreneurship, non-profit organizations, and civil society in general.

Yanto Chandra

Yanto Chandra, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and Director of the Centre for Social Policy and Social Entrepreneurship (CSPSE). His research focuses on social entrepreneurship, social innovation, sustainability, and policy. He is Associate Editor in Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics: A European Review and sits in various editorial boards including Social Enterprise Journal. His work has been published in Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of International Business Studies, Public Management Review, Public Administration Review, International Public Management Journal, World Development, among others.

Mashitah Hamidi

Mashitah Hamidi, PhD is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Administration and Justice, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, University of Malaya. Her research focuses on development studies and social services system of transnational labor migration, stateless and refugees group.

Haris Abd Wahab

Haris Abd Wahab, PhD is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Administration and Justice, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, University of Malaya. His research focuses on community well-being, social care programmes for the at-risk children in Malaysia, children well-being and social development for vulnerable social groups.