Consumer Behaviour and Social Entrepreneurship: The Case of South Korea

Abstract

Although social entrepreneurship has gained popularity and our understanding of social entrepreneurship has evolved, insufficient attention has been given to understand the behaviours of consumers, a key stakeholder of social entrepreneurship. Because consumers directly impact the performance of social enterprises, it is imperative to address this research gap. Relying on the theory of planned behaviour, we examine the relationship between consumers’ intentions and behaviours when purchasing social enterprise products and services. Moreover, this study explores how consumers’ sociodemographic characteristics, such as political ideology, trust towards social entrepreneurship, and household income, influence the relationship between consumers’ intentions and behaviours. Based on a sample of randomly selected 972 Korean consumers, this study finds a consumer’s intention is positively associated with behaviour, and the positive relationship between intention and action is strengthened when a consumer has a progressive political ideology and higher income level.

Keywords:

• Social enterprise
• consumer behaviour
• stakeholders
• South Korean Context

Acknowledgments

The early version of this study was awarded as a best research paper by the Center for Social Value Enhancement Studies (CSES) in 2020 and presented at the Sustainability, Ethics & Entrepreneurship (SEE) conference in 2020.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Helping others in need is referred to as “solidarity” while restoring/maintaining equality in outcomes is referred to as “justice” (For more in-depth discussion, please see Alexander 2006)

2 In South Korea, the progressive political stance represents a political philosophy to support the mitigating income inequality, universal health care, higher minimum wage, environmental justice, and so on, which is similar to the USA (Peng 2011).