• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.139-154
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• 2024

This study investigates the effects of social entrepreneurs' management competencies and background characteristics on public market performance. The government enacted the Social Enterprise Promotion Act in 2007 to create sustainable jobs and solve various social problems through social enterprises. However, contrary to expectations, the performance of social enterprise promotion has been criticized for being biased toward quantitative growth and not achieving the real policy goal of spreading the intrinsic competitiveness and net social functions of social enterprises. Under these circumstances, this study aims to investigate how the intrinsic competitiveness of social enterprises can be enhanced, especially in the public market supported by the government, by focusing on the mediating relationship between the public market performance of social enterprises and the management capabilities and experience characteristics of social entrepreneurs. The results showed that among the management competencies of social entrepreneurs, strategic competencies, technical and professional competencies, and marketing competencies have a positive effect on the public market performance of social enterprises, while managerial competencies have no effect on public market performance. Second, when it comes to the management capability characteristics of social entrepreneurs, we find that technical and professional capabilities, strategic capabilities, and marketing capabilities have a positive effect on experience characteristics, but managerial capabilities have no effect on public market performance. Third, in the test of the mediating effect of experience characteristics on the public market performance of social entrepreneurs' management competence characteristics, it is found that strategic competence and marketing competence have a statistically significant effect on public market performance, while technical and professional competence is not significant. In conclusion, experience characteristics have a partial mediating effect on the relationship between social entrepreneurs' strategic and marketing capabilities and public market performance, while experience characteristics have a full mediating effect on the relationship between technical and professional capabilities and public market performance. In order to create jobs and solve various social problems through fostering social enterprises as expected by the government, all kinds of policy support should be expanded to help social enterprises develop sustainable growth and development with intrinsic competitiveness, and in particular, various policy supports to facilitate social enterprises' entry into the public market should be considered, as well as various policy measures to help social entrepreneurs accumulate experience in various social economic activities and strengthen their management capabilities. In addition, it is essential to introduce policies to strengthen the capacity to enter the public market in policies for social enterprise leap forward and sustainability of social venture companies fostered by the government.