More Prosocial, More Ephemeral? Exploring the Formation of a Social Entrepreneur's Exit Intention via Life Satisfaction

This study was designed to test if satisfaction with health and personal financial wellbeing mediates the relationship between prosocial motivations and exit intentions among social entrepreneurs. Using a sample of 317 social entrepreneurs, the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) revealed that prosocial motivation decreased the financial satisfaction of entrepreneurs, which increased their exit intentions. However, health satisfaction did not have a mediating effect on the relationship between prosocial motivation and exit intention. Moreover, adopting the multi-group analysis (MGA) technique, we found that the negative impact of prosocial motivation on financial satisfaction was stronger for males than for females, suggesting male entrepreneurs were more likely to experience lower financial satisfaction caused by prosocial motivation than female entrepreneurs. There was no evidence that gender moderated the relationship between prosocial motivation and health satisfaction.

Automated summary

This study found that prosocial motivation among social entrepreneurs decreases their financial satisfaction and increases their exit intentions. However, health satisfaction does not mediate this relationship, and the negative impact of prosocial motivation on financial satisfaction is stronger for males compared to females.