CONDITIONED TO CARE? GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ENTREPRENEURIAL SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Whitney Oliver Peake Western Kentucky University Gordon Ford College of Business Department of Management 1906 College Heights Boulevard, #11063 Bowling Green, KY 42101 (270) 745-3531 whitney.peake@wku.edu Kimberly Eddleston Northeastern University ABSTRACT Researchers generally agree that entrepreneurs socially responsible behavior and community economic health are intricately intertwined. However, relatively little research examines social responsibility in the small business realm. Prior research in this area suggests that although men and women do not differ in their propensities to engage in helping behaviors, gender is an important consideration. We extend this viewpoint by integrating the sorting model used in the civic engagement literature with self-construal theory to examine how social sorting via education and social priority values influences social responsibility engagement for entrepreneurs, as well as, how gender gives context to these relationships. EXTENDED ABSTRACT Entrepreneurs owning and operating small businesses are widely acknowledged to serve as pillars of social responsibility since their activities generally directly benefit the community in which the entrepreneur lives and works (Besser, Miller, & Perkins, 2006; Fitzgerald, Haynes, Schrank, & Danes, 2010; Niehm, Swinney, & Miller, 2008). As the leader of the small business, the entrepreneur serves as the primary decision-maker, and fosters the adoption of norms and values important to him/her (Jenkins, 2006); thus, the small business serves as a vehicle through which the entrepreneur communicates those values via socially responsible behavior (Hemingway & Maclagan, 2004; Hemingway, 2005). The limited research in this area suggests that social responsibility and prosocial behaviors hold significant importance to entrepreneurs operation of their small businesses, yielding economic and civic health benefits to their communities (e.g., Blanchard, Tolbert, & Mencken, 2012; Lähdesmä & Takala, 2012; Thompson et al., 1993; Tolbert et al., 1998). The context related to why and how entrepreneurs engage to create a more meaningful presence for their businesses via small business social responsibility, however, is under-investigated. The drivers of entrepreneurs social responsibility engagement are not currently well-understood, despite myriad antecedents and influences that may exist (Besser & Miller, 2004; Peake, Cooper, Fitzgerald, & Muske, 2015a). Reviews of the literatures on helping in civic engagement and
volunteerism suggest that education, as a social sorting mechanism, provides the most pervasive effect in promoting prosocial behaviors (e.g., Campbell, 2006; Campbell, 2009; Putnam, 2000; Taniguchi, 2006; Zúñiga &Valenzuela, 2011). However, these literatures likewise suggest that being male strengthens the relationship between education level and these behaviors (Campbell, 2009; Nie, Junn, & Stehlik-Barry, 1996; Schlozman et al., 1994), and that men and women undertake different types of behaviors (Besser & Jarnagin, 2010; Wilson & Musick, 1997) based on their self-construal and gender roles (Cross & Madson, 1997; Eagly, 2009). As such, we draw from complementary literatures in civic engagement, helping, and gender to provide additional context to entrepreneurs engagement in small business social responsibility. The sorting model applied in civic engagement research suggests that an individual s education relative to his/her reference group proxies status and that status is a key factor in competitive environments (i.e., elections, business) (Campbell, 2009; Nie et al., 1996). Further, with higher status, awareness of collective betterment improves (Persson, 2011). Indeed, education has been considered as a controlling factor in small business social responsibility research, but has not leveraged the implications of the sorting model. Scholars utilizing the sorting model to address civic involvement and volunteering behaviors argue that accounting for additional context is critical in understanding how education plays such an important role in driving these behaviors (Campbell, 2009; Hillygus, 2005). Gender has been found to serve as an important contextual factor for the sorting model, since it appears to apply more to men than women (e.g., Campbell, 2009; Nie et al., 1996), suggesting that gender may strengthen or weaken the model with a moderating influence. The helping literature generally appears to support this assertion, since although men and women have not been found to exhibit differences in propensity for prosocial behavior (Besser & Jarnagin, 2010), they do differ in the motivation for and types of behaviors undertaken (DeHart-Davis, Marlowe, & Pandey, 2006; Eagly, 2009; Mesch, Brown, Moore, & Hayat, 2011). The tenets of self-construal theory further clarify the context that gender provides in choice of helping behaviors. Self-construal suggests that women more often engage in helping behaviors that focus on smaller groups that allow them to develop close relationships (Wilson, 2000; Wilson & Musick, 1997; Zúñiga & Valenzuela, 2011), due to their interdependent selfconstruals. Conversely, men are generally associated with more independent self-construals; thus, research on helping suggests that men more frequently engage in helping behaviors that have an audience, an opportunity to exhibit chivalry, and are related to their jobs (Eagly & Crowley, Wilson & Musick, 1997). We extend sorting model theory to the small business social responsibility domain and examine the context of gender via self-construal in these relationships for 282 entrepreneurs owning and operating small businesses, based on the following hypotheses: H1: Higher education level is positively related to social responsibility participation for small business owners. H2: Social value priority is positively related to social responsibility participation.
H3: The gender of the entrepreneur moderates the relationship between education level and level of engagement in social responsibility, such that men will report greater social responsibility participation than women for higher levels of education. H4: The gender of the entrepreneur moderates the relationship between social value priority and level of engagement in social responsibility, such that men will report higher levels of social responsibility participation than women for reporting priorities on social goals. We examine each of our hypotheses for the three dependent variables: Employee work environment and development, Employee well-being, and Local and civic responsibility via linear regression in SPSS 23. Table 1 below highlights the support, or lack of support, for each hypothesis examined. TABLE 1 Support for Hypotheses Hypothesis H1: Higher education level is positively related to social responsibility participation for small business owners. H2: Social value priority is positively related to social responsibility participation. H3: The gender of the entrepreneur moderates the relationship between education level and level of engagement in social responsibility, such that men will report greater social responsibility participation than women for higher levels of education. H4: The gender of the entrepreneur moderates the relationship between social value priority and level of engagement in social responsibility, such that men will report higher levels of social responsibility participation than women for reporting priorities on social goals. Results Not supported Not supported Marginally supported Employee well-being: Supported Supported Local and civic responsibility: Not supported
The contexts of social responsibility type and gender lend important academic implications, as well as opportunities for future research. This study provides a unique perspective on small business social responsibility by offering the sorting model as a theoretical lens through which to view small business engagement in socially responsible behaviors. Further, we offer context to when and how these behaviors might occur through both considering the context of gender and exploring a broad range of socially responsible activities. We expand on these contributions further in the subsequent discussion. The sorting model has long been used by political scientists to explain why individuals may engage in civic-oriented behaviors, as education has been found to serve as a strong predictor of engagement in myriad contexts (Campbell, 2009; Nie et al., 1996; Putnam, 2000). We extend the prior literature in small business social responsibility by drawing our theory base from this literature to examine how an entrepreneurs education level relative to other entrepreneurs may influence engagement in social responsibility. Unexpectedly, education did not exhibit the pervasive direct effects generally reported in the civic engagement and volunteering (Campbell, 2006, 2009; Hillygus, 2005; Nie et al., 1996; Putnam, 2000; Taniguchi, 2006; Verba et al., 1995; Wilson, 2000), or even earlier small business social responsibility research in which education has been offered as a control (Fitzgerald et al., 2010; Peake et al., 2015a; Peake et al., 2015b). Further, as the sorting model suggests that those with increased awareness will engage more heavily out of an enhanced view for the collective (Campbell, 2006; Persson, 2011), we are surprised by the partial support for the relationship between social value priorities and social responsibility; however, as the civic engagement literature suggests, when we consider local and civic involvement, the relationship is positive and significant, as hypothesized. We believe this points to the importance of the consideration of context, of both type of social responsibility undertaken and the gender of the initiator. Our results likewise vary, depending on the type of social responsibility under consideration. The limited prior research in small business social responsibility, suggests that small business owners may direct their efforts at differing types of social responsibility with varying levels of zeal (Besser & Jarnagin, 2010; Fitzgerald et al., 2010; Niehm et al., 2008; Peake et al., 2015a; Peake et al., 2015b). For example, in our model social values priority directly impacts the level of local and civic involvement, but does not directly impact employee-oriented initiatives such as employee professional development or employee well-being. Community-targeted social responsibility has an element of embeddedness in which the owners personal and business lives are intricately intertwined; thus, customers may introduce perception bias in that they fail to differentiate between these two realms (Niehm et al., 2008; Peake et al, 2015a). Our broad view of social responsibility, focused both internally and externally, with varying levels of discretion, allows the field additional insight into contextual differences. When we consider gender in addition to a broad view of socially responsible behaviors, we provide additional perspective to the small business social responsibility literature. Both selfconstrual and gender role theories suggest that women, with relatively more interdependent selfconstruals, tend to take on more informal, helping tasks; whereas, men, with relatively more independent self-construals focus more on social responsibility associated with their work (Eagly, 2009). Researchers purport that the sorting model applies more to men than women (Campbell, 2009; Nie et al, 1996), and our results suggest that this may indeed be true with
regards to engagement in small business social responsibility. Across our models, the slope of women s participation in small business social responsibility shows no statistical differences for education level. Men s participation, however, changes significantly with higher levels of education. Prior research in environmentalism (Zelezny et al., 2000) suggests that women are naturally more socialized to care about others and the environment but that education may assist in conditioning men to engage more in such activities. The sorting model, congruent with selfconstrual theory, indicates that perhaps the more independent self-construal of men drives them to engage in such behaviors to jockey for status in a competitive marketplace more than women (Campbell, 2009; Schlozman et al., 1994). The same results also hold in our model for social priority values. When men and women report low social value priority, women exceed men in their level of focus on employee work environment and development. However, when men and women report higher levels of social priority values, men exceed women in their reported level of engagement. These results appear to suggest that women do provide more informal care and support (Besser & Jarnagin, 2010; Wilson & Music, 1997; Wilson, 2000). Conversely, researchers argue that men are more likely to engage in volunteering or socially responsible behaviors if they are a part of their job (Wilson & Musick, 1997; Wilson, 2000). Thus, when we consider the type of social responsibility at hand, as well as the gender of the respondent, we gain valuable insight into how and when engagement in social responsibility may occur for entrepreneurs in small businesses. The importance of context lends valuable practical implications to both business and education. Community development officers can benefit from better understanding what types of community activities may be most likely to be undertaken by men and which are more appealing to women. This will assist in targeting participants and appealing to those targets. Further, the work on employee motivation suggests that employees identify with and commit to firms that are more socially responsible (Brammer, Millington, & Rayton, 2007). Thus, understanding, how and when such engagement is likely to take place can be helpful to human resource professionals and managers in understanding traditionally who engages in these initiative and perhaps what drives them to do so. Perhaps most importantly, educators can use this information in social entrepreneurship and business ethics courses to enhance their instruction for both their male and female students. Prior research suggests that raising awareness is an important key in facilitating prosocial behaviors (Persson, 2011); thus, if educators understand how and when managers typically engage in socially responsible behaviors by gender, then instruction can assist in better conditioning both male and female students to care and appropriately credit themselves for their behavior in making more meaningful organizations. Results tables and references are available from the authors upon request.