A mission of service: social entrepreneur as a servant leader
研究了社会企业家是否具备仆人式领导特质，通过对78名俄罗斯创业者的调查发现，社会企业家在利他、正直、信任他人和共情方面优于传统企业家，但谦逊无显著差异。
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to establish a conceptual link between the research domains of social entrepreneurship and servant leadership by exploring the proposition that social entrepreneurs may have specific leadership attributes that allow classifying them as servant leaders. Design/methodology/approach Five servant leadership attributes were identified based on the literature review: altruism, humility, integrity, trust in others and empathy. In an exploratory study, these attributes were examined in a sample of 78 Russian entrepreneurs. Findings Survey results indicate that social entrepreneurs indeed differ from traditional ones in four of the perceived servant leadership attributes: altruism, integrity, trust in others and empathy. However, no differences in humility between social and traditional entrepreneurs were found. Research limitations/implications The limitations of this study are the sample size and the sampling technique used (targeted and snowball sampling). Another limitation is the nature of the instrument used: servant leadership attributes were measured through a self-assessment questionnaire, making it susceptible to a social desirability bias. The study contributes toward setting a future research agenda for the further studies of both social entrepreneurship and servant leadership. Originality/value This paper introduces a conceptual connection between social entrepreneurship and servant leadership. No such study had been reported prior to this research.