Wisdom and Altruism in Entrepreneurship: Comparing Social Entrepreneurs toCommercial Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Purpose – Besides philosophers, today wisdom has been a subject of inquiry for psychologists,management scientist and other social scientists as well. We tried to understand the role of wisdomin entrepreneurship by comparing the social entrepreneurs to commercial entrepreneurs by usingMonika Ardelt's (2003) Three Dimensional Model of Wisdom. In addition, the association of wisdomdimensions to altruism was scrutinized for both entrepreneur groups.Design / Methodology/ Approach – The data of the research were gathered from 350 entrepreneurswho had accepted to be participants of this study. The participants were reached via variousuniversities that provide consultancy services to these entrepreneurs. The surveys includeddemographic questions, Ardelt’s (2003) 3D –WS (Three Dimensional Wisdom) questionnaire, andRushton and collegues’ Self-Report Altruism Scale. Independent sample t-tests and multipleregression analysis were conducted to test the hypothesis.Results – The results showed that social entrepreneurs had significantly higher scores in alldimensions of wisdom (Reflective: t342,583: 5,810, p<.01; Affective: t342,525:2,595, p<.01; and Cognitive:t329,673: 22.502, p<.01). Moreover reflective and affective dimensions of wisdom were found to predictaltruism scores of all entrepreneurs (R2:.27, F: 62.550, p<.01, βreflective: .312, p<.01; βaffective:.273,p<.01). Besides these results, all the sub dimensions of two constructs were compared for bothgroups and significant differences were found. The associations in the regression analysis amongwisdom and altruism dimensions also varied for two groups.Discussion – The results showed that compared to commercial entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurshave higher scores in the attributes of wisdom and altruism. Besides, the wisdom relatedantecedents of altruism differentiate for each group of entrepreneurs. These findings shed light onthe importance of wisdom and altruism on social entrepreneurship and help us to understand thebasic dynamics of social entrepreneurship.