ifkad articles

Cultural drivers of social entrepreneurship: Evidence from Ukraine

Rossella Canestrino, Angelo Bonfanti, Yuliya Korgunyk, Pierpaolo Magliocca

This paper aims to investigate the cultural drivers that lie under the adoption of Social Entrepreneurship (SE) in Ukraine, mainly focusing on the role that In-group Collectivism and Human Orientation play in shaping Entrepreneurial and Social Orientation of both individuals and organizations. The paper is theoretically grounded and based on an inductive approach. Firstly, an extensive literary review about SE is proposed. Secondly, SE in Ukraine is depicted. A cultural interpretation of the emerging trends is, therefore, provided, mainly referring to the available GLOBE data. This paper contributes to the literature improving about SE by providing for a culturally-based framework to deepen a still unexplored field. Moreover, the value of this study consists in presenting how cultural particularities shape social entrepreneurial activity in Ukraine, offering a new and original contribution about the topic. This paper will expand the ability of both academics and practitioners to recognize culture as key drivers of SE. In doing this, it opens up future exploitations about the way culture and cultural diversities may be managed in order to improve the effectiveness of firms’ practices particularly referring to social well-being.

IN: Proceedings IFKAD 2017 – Knowledge Management in the 21st Century: Resilience, Creativity and Co-creation
PP: 1649-1664