Entrepreneur as Change Agent: Antecedents and Moderators of Individual-Level Philanthropic Behavior

Keywords

entrepreneurial philanthropy, generativity, legacy creation

Abstract

What motivates entrepreneurs' philanthropic acts? Philanthropy has been key to American social and cultural development, and it is also a major driver, along with entrepreneurship, of the American economy. To help researchers better understand the antecedents of entrepreneurs' philanthropic giving, we develop a theoretical model of individual-level philanthropic actions. As antecedents of philanthropic actions in our model, we include three theoretical constructs (immortality striving, legacy creation, and generativity) from the psychology and social psychology literatures. We also propose several variables that we expect to moderate these relationships including entrepreneur age, gender, religious orientation, and wealth. Lastly, we offer directions for future research.

Original Publication Citation

"Coombs, J., Shipp, A., & Jones Christensen, L. Entrepreneur as change agent: Antecedents and moderators of individual-level philanthropic behavior. Paper presented at the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference, June."

Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

2008

Publisher

Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Marketing

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

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