The link between societal motivation and new venture performance: evidence from entrepreneurs in Japan

Although there has been an increase in the popularity of social entrepreneurship, previous studies have paid little attention to for-profit entrepreneurs’ motive of making a contribution to the society, that is, societal motivation. In this study, we focus on societal motivation and analyze its link with for-profit ventures’ outcomes, such as likelihood of novelty, external financing, size, and sales. Using samples of Japanese entrepreneurs, we find support for our hypotheses that new ventures established by for-profit entrepreneurs with societal motivation are more novel and that these ventures achieve larger size and sales compared to the ventures of other for-profit entrepreneurs who lack such motivation. However, our findings also indicate that the ventures of for-profit entrepreneurs with societal motivation receive less external financing compared to those with merely economic motivation.