Volunteering as a catalyst to social entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship has arisen as an alternative to address societal challenges, combining business objectives with social goals. This study investigates the relationships between volunteering, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and social entrepreneurship intentions using Partial Least Square - Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Data was collected from 1,052 participants across 27 countries, with 47 % of respondents being Brazilian. The results suggest that volunteering practice has a significant positive impact on social entrepreneurship intentions, with a strong coefficient of 0.455. However, the study reveals a complex relationship between these variables. While volunteering positively influences entrepreneurial self-efficacy, the direct effect of entrepreneurial self-efficacy on social entrepreneurship intentions was found to be minimal. These findings suggest that while volunteering plays a crucial role in fostering social entrepreneurship intentions, the relationship between self-efficacy and social entrepreneurial intentions may be mediated by other factors. The study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on these intricate relationships and highlights the need for future research to explore potential mediating variables that could explain the unexpected weak link between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social entrepreneurship intentions