Humanitarian Crusaders

They are change makers. Their organizations have helped millions, and their impact wraps around the globe, Forbes’ Michela Tindera says. But what personality traits do social entrepreneurs share? What’s behind the mask?

What is interesting about social enterprises, MBA student Jess Webb argues, is that while social objectives are at their core,

to succeed they still need to generate cash, be profitable and scalable.

For example, social entrepreneur Alan Mahon suggests he is 90 per cent commercial and 10 per cent philanthropic.

I work to build a scalable business, but we want to make a difference out of what comes out of it. Can I work for the benefit of people I may never see? Of course I can. It’s a win-win and I think consumers get it, too.

However, the toughest part of this story is the fact that social enterprises face the problem of leveraging resources within tight parameters such as limited funding, complex legal and legislative constrictions, a study confirms.

The main risk related to this is that those kind of constrictions could suffocate the opportunity for such enterprises to get off the ground, survive, and thrive.

Therefore, to overcome such limitations, social entrepreneurs should own some peculiar traits, a recent research pointed out.

In particular, exploring the difference in personality traits between traditional and social entrepreneurs, researchers Smith, Bell and Watts found out that alongside the defining characteristic of

leveraging of all resources from the micro and macro environment with the potential to add value and advance or establish a given venture

on the whole, all entrepreneurs exhibit a similar cluster of characteristics.

However, Creativity and Innovativeness, Moderate/Calculated Risk Taking, and Need for Autonomy/Independence are the dimensions where it was shown a statistical significant difference with traditional entrepreneurs.

According to their view, this is due to rigid contexts in which they operate thing which fuels a

shift away from a performance-based, profit-maximising business model to one a model in which transparency and a return to stakeholders are expected.

Put it simply, they have to think out of the box more than others while finding the right balance for their rebellious acts to change the world.