Have you got a friend in me? Social entrepreneurs' development of intangible capitals through social impact accelerators

• Ano de defesa: 2024
• Autor(a) principal: Rocha, Thomaz Novais
• Orientador(a): Fleury, Maria Tereza Leme
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Palavras-chave em Português: Empreendedorismo social; Aceleradoras de impacto social; Capital social; Capital humano; Capital psicológico
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Social entrepreneurship; Social impact accelerators; Social capital; Human capital; Psychological capital
• Link de acesso: https://hdl.handle.net/10438/35316

Beyond tangible and structural resources such as economic aspects and financial capital, studies have acknowledged the importance of intangible capitals for entrepreneurial success. In the context of social entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurs even face additional challenges in balancing the social and the economic logics. Consequently, entrepreneurial support activities for social entrepreneurs are growing, with social impact accelerators emerging as relevant supporting organizations. Given this context, the objective of this dissertation is to identify what are the intangible capitals that social entrepreneurs develop through participation in social impact accelerators and to analyze how this process occurs on their journeys within these programs. Initially, I identify social, human, and psychological capital as the main intangible capitals in the social entrepreneurship literature and discuss their interplays with social impact accelerators. Second, through a multiple case study with 15 social entrepreneurs and 3 social impact accelerators, I find the main mechanisms through which these three intangible capitals are developed. For social capital, the mechanisms for development of bonding, bridging, and linking capital were based on online community-building, structured agenda of events, purposeful selection of external connections, as well as the accelerators’ efforts to provide visibility and legitimacy to the social entrepreneurs. Human capital was developed through an iterative process of formation, selection and interaction with mentors, and trainings in communication skills. Furthermore, the dimensions of psychological capital (hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism) emerged as indirect effects, after social and human capital acquisition by the social entrepreneurs. Additionally, this research identifies different relationships between the three intangible capitals in social impact accelerators, revealing novel dynamics that influence social, human, and psychological capital’s dimensions. Finally, I discuss the theoretical contributions and the practical implications of this dissertation.