Journal of Business Venturing Insights 17 (2022) e00299
Available online 5 December 2021
2352-6734/© 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Let ethics lead your way: The role of moral identity and moral intensity in promoting social entrepreneurial intention
Widya Paramita
a,b,*, Nurul Indarti
a, Risa Virgosita
a, Rina Herani
a, Bayu Sutikno
aaFaculty of Economics and Business, Gadjah Mada University, Sosio Humaniora No. 1, Bulaksumur, Yogyakarta, 55281, Indonesia
bSchool of Marketing, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia
A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords:
Social entrepreneurial intention Moral identity
Ethical judgment Psychological proximity Ethical decision-making
A B S T R A C T
There is an ongoing debate whether or not social entrepreneurship is a manifestation of an in- dividual’s morality. In particular, it is argued that social entrepreneurship is not necessarily based on moral decisions. This study provides an alternative explanation that possibly can bridge these two opposing arguments by examining social entrepreneurial intention using individual ethical decision-making theory. By surveying 241 samples in Indonesia, this study has found that in- dividuals with higher moral identification judge the act of establishing a social venture as a moral decision; hence, they have a more moral social entrepreneurial intention. However, the influence of moral identity on ethical judgment and social entrepreneurial intention is only significant when individuals perceive psychological proximity with the associated social problems. This study provides theoretical contributions to the literature on social entrepreneurship and ethics. In addition, the research findings have practical implications for social marketing.
1. Introduction
The world is facing a tremendous increase in socio-economic problems (Jones et al., 2021; Wolfe and Patel, 2021). For instance, 114 million people have lost their jobs during 2020 (Richter, 2021). In the US, the incidence of depression increased by 31% in 2020 (Abbott, 2021). There was even an increase in natural disasters due to climate change (World Meteorological Organization, 2021). As governments struggled to provide resources to tackle these emerging problems (Rosenberg, 2021; Samboh, 2020), they put more efforts into encouraging entrepreneurs to establish social ventures (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2020;
Satar and Natasha, 2019). Consistently, researchers continuously explore factors that predict individual behaviour to establish social ventures (Siebold et al., 2019; Brandle et al., 2018; Tan et al., 2021; Lehner and Kaniskas, 2012). As behavior can be predicted using behavioral intention (Lee et al., 2018), this study focuses on exploring factors that promote intention to create social venture, namely social entrepreneurial intention (Tiwari et al., 2017; Tan et al., 2021).
Social entrepreneurial intention refers to the state of mind, specifically an individual’s desire and determination to pursue a social mission, that directs and guides entrepreneurial actions in creating a social venture (Tiwari et al., 2017; Bacq and Alt, 2018). Several studies have introduced ethical qualities as unique predictors of social entrepreneurial intentions (Kraus et al., 2017; Forster and Grichnik, 2013; Chandra et al., 2021b). For example, several studies found that some moral qualities such as moral emotions (i.e.
compassion and empathy), moral agency, moral obligation, as well as moral values, predict social entrepreneurial intention (Forster
* Corresponding author. Faculty of Economics and Business, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (W. Paramita), [email protected] (N. Indarti), [email protected] (R. Virgosita), [email protected] (R. Herani), [email protected] (B. Sutikno).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Business Venturing Insights
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbvi
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2021.e00299
Received 11 September 2021; Received in revised form 19 November 2021; Accepted 1 December 2021
and Grichnik, 2013; Grimes et al., 2013; Hockerts, 2017; Roundy and Bonnal, 2017; Tucker et al., 2019). However, there is still an ongoing debate on whether social entrepreneurial intention represents a moral decision, as this decision also includes egoistic con- siderations such as commercial and personal interests (Bacq et al., 2016). Consequently, there is a continuous call to test moral factors in predicting social entrepreneurial decision (Chell et al., 2016). Thus, this study aims to offer an alternative explanation to predict social entrepreneurial intention within moral domain.
Built upon Jones’ issue contingent model (1991), the main objective of this study is to examine whether social entrepreneurial intention is predicted by moral identity through ethical judgment. Moral identity refers to the degree to which being a moral person is important to an individual (Hardy and Carlo, 2011), whereas ethical judgment represents an individual evaluation of whether or not a decision is an ethical one (Jones, 1991). We extend the current study by examining the psychological proximity with the social problems as a condition in which social entrepreneurial intention is regarded as an ethical decision making. The degree of proximity represents the feeling of nearness (social, cultural, psychological, or physical) between the individuals and the beneficiaries of the social problems (Jones, 1991). This research contributes to the literature by showing that social entrepreneurial intention can be explained by moral identity via ethical judgment only when individuals feel psychologically close with the social problems (see Fig. 1).
It is important to note that the terms moral and ethical are used simultaneously yet carefully in this study because it has been built upon the previous literature comprising the studies by prominent scholars on ethical decision-making (e.g., Rest, 1986; Trevino, 1986;
Jones, 1991) in which the terms moral and ethical have been used interchangeably, making it difficult to disentangle these terms in our study (Miller et al., 2014). The argument was that moral principles such as compassion, caring, hard work, also represent a kind of established norms within the global society (i.e., universal moral norms) (Xu and Ma, 2016; Jia and Krettenauer, 2017).
1.1. Theoretical development
1.1.1. Jones’ issue-contingent ethical decision-making model
The issue-contingent model posits that ethical behavior is developed through moral judgment and moral intention and is influenced by individual and situational factors, including the moral intensity of the issues (Jones, 1991). The issue-contingent model is currently the most widely used model in the literature on ethical decision-making (Lehnert et al., 2015). Fundamentally, the issue-contingent model is established based on earlier EDM theories: namely Rest’s four components of EDM and Trevino’s person-situation inter- actionist model (Rest, 1986; Jones, 1991; Trevino, 1986). Consistent with the previous theories, Jones’ issue-contingent model aimed to explain the stages that precede an individual’s ethical decision or ethical behavior (Rest, 1986; Jones, 1991; Trevino, 1986).
Ethical behavior refers to behaviors or actions that can be evaluated based on certain acceptable behavioral norms (Reynolds and Ceranic, 2007; Trevino et al., 2006), including moral norms (Aquino and Reed II, 2002). Furthermore, the ethical behavior can manifest itself in a wide range of behaviors, such as being honest, whistle-blowing, or law-abiding behavior (Reynolds and Ceranic, 2007). The issue-contingent model posits that ethical behavior is preceded by ethical intention and ethical judgment (Rest, 1986;
Jones, 1991; Trevino, 1986). Ethical judgment is conceptualized as an individual’s evaluation of whether a behavior or a decision is ethical or unethical (Barnett and Valentine, 2004). This means that, when individuals judge a behavior or a decision to be ethical, they are more likely to engage in the behavior (Barnett and Valentine, 2004; Valentine and Godkin, 2019). For an instance, individuals are more likely to report illegal misconduct that harms public interests when they judge the behavior as being ethical (Valentine and Godkin, 2019). Another study by Ding et al. (2018) revealed that the ability to determine whether a behavior is in accordance with moral principles led to prosocial behavior.
Furthermore, the issue-contingent model has recognized the importance of individual and contextual factors in influencing ethical decision stages, including ethical judgment and ethical behavior (Trevino, 1986; Jones, 1991). Jones (1991) has suggested several individual factors that are influential in ethical decision stages such as ego strength, field experience, and locus of control. For the contextual factors, immediate job context, organizational culture, characteristics of the work and, mainly, moral intensity have been incorporated into the theory (Trevino, 1986; Jones, 1991). According to Jones (1991), moral intensity is defined as the extent of problem-related moral imperatives in a situation. Although there are six dimensions of moral intensity, such as magnitude of con- sequences, social consensus, concentration of effect, probability of effect, temporal immediacy, and proximity (Jones, 1991; Sin- ghapakdi et al., 1996), previous studies generally only examined dimensions that are relevant to their own contexts, while each dimension influences ethical decision-making stages distinctly (Valentine and Hollingworth, 2012; Puncheva-Michelotti et al., 2018).
For instance, a study by Rousselet et al. (2020) included magnitude of consequences, probability of effect, and temporal immediacy.
Fig. 1.Theoretical framework.
Another study by Puncheva-Michelotti et al. (2018) examined only the proximity dimension in the context of fashion.
Not only are these factors said to influence EDM independently, several studies also found the interaction between individual and contextual factors, as well as the moral intensity, in influencing individual EDM (Reed et al., 2007; Sparks, 2015; Cojuharenco and Sguera, 2015). For instance, Cojuharenco and Sguera (2015) demonstrated the interaction between empathy and time pressure on ethical judgment. Accordingly, this study examines social entrepreneurial intention as predicted by moral identity and moral intensity, specifically psychological proximity, through ethical judgment.
1.1.2. Moral identity and social entrepreneurial intention
Moral identity represents a self-conceptualization around certain moral characteristics, such as compassion, caring, helpful, generous, hardworking, honest, and kind (Reynolds and Ceranic, 2007). Moral identity reflects how important it is for an individual to be a moral person that have these moral characteristics, and to think, feel, and do as a moral person does (Hardy and Carlo, 2011;
Aquino and Reed II, 2002). Moral identity plays a critical role in ethical decision-making as it influences the way people interpret, evaluate, and respond to situations (Aquino et al., 2011). As such, moral identity can enhance individuals’ ability to control themselves and to consistently guide the individual according to the moral aims and their conception of a moral person (Shao et al., 2008). Moral identity also serves as a moral lens, in which individuals tend to evaluate and behave based on moral principles (Aquino and Reed II, 2002; Shao et al., 2008). Consistently, previous empirical studies have found that moral identity is linked to various ethical behaviours, ranging from behaviours that prevent harm to others (e.g., whistle blowing) to behaviours that promote the well-being of others and caring (e.g., prosocial behaviours) (Valentine and Godkin, 2019; Winterich et al., 2013; Hertz and Krettenauer, 2016). As social entrepreneurial intention represents care aimed to promote the welfare of the society, this study proposes that moral identity can also positively influence social entrepreneurial intention. Formally, we hypothesize that:
H1. Moral identity has a positive relationship with social entrepreneurial intention.
1.1.3. The mediating role of ethical judgment
Literature suggests that moral identity is influential on individual ethical judgment (Reynolds and Ceranic, 2007; Shao et al., 2008).
Individuals with strong moral identity are more likely to process information consistent with moral values or moral criteria (Reed II et al., 2007). Specifically, individuals will apply moral criteria to make a judgment about the ethicality of a behavior (Shao et al., 2008). Thus, when individuals have a strong moral identity, they are more likely to evaluate the decision to establish a social venture according to moral values, such as caring and compassion. As the decision to establish a social venture, termed as social entrepre- neurial intention, represents an act of compassion and caring with regard to the welfare of the society (Andre and Pache, 2016; Fisscher et al., 2005), individuals with strong moral identity will judge the social entrepreneurial intention as a moral decision. As Jones’
issue-contingent EDM theory postulates that ethical judgment precedes ethical behaviour intention (Rest, 1986; Trevino, 1986), we propose that moral identity can increase individual ethical judgment toward developing a social venture and hence, increases social entrepreneurial intention.
H2. The relationship between moral identity and social entrepreneurial intention is mediated by ethical judgment.
1.1.4. The moderating role of psychological proximity
Although individuals have established ethical judgment, it is not always translated into behavioural intention (Jones, 1991; Hunt and Vitell, 1986). Specifically, individuals need to balance the trade-off between making moral decisions and other utilitarian con- siderations such as their own interests (Hunt and Vitell, 1986; Jones, 1991). Furthermore, the literatures on ethics suggest that the problem characteristics, such as the psychological proximity, can enhance the prediction of ethical judgment regarding moral behaviour intention (Barnett and Valentine, 2004; Granitz and Ward, 2001; Levine et al., 2005). For example, Levine et al. (2005) found that individuals are more likely to help when they feel psychological proximity with the victims.
Psychological proximity represents the psychological nearness individuals feel to the victims of the problems (Singhapakdi et al., 1996; Jones, 1991). This proximity can be assessed based on cognitive aspects, which relates to an individual’s mental representation including perceived salience, knowledge, and personal relevance of the problems (Lee et al., 2018; Ruiz-Ortega et al., 2021). Also, it can be assessed based on emotional aspects, i.e. the emotional connectedness and empathy towards the people or the events (Lee et al., 2018; Curry, 2003). Psychological proximity is more influential on cognition and behaviour than physical or temporal proximity because it increases the salience and vividness of the problems that in turn heighten emotions, feelings, cognitive and behavioural responses intensity (Jones, 1991; Singhapakdi et al., 1996); it increases individuals’ perceived risk of the problems and susceptibility of the associated victims and individuals’ engagement toward the problems (Breves and Schramm, 2021; Spence et al., 2012; Jones et al., 2017); and colours individuals’ pursuit of goals by shifting priority, information processing, and direct the responses toward the proximal objects (Maglio, 2020). Accordingly, we propose that psychological proximity can enhance the indirect relationship between moral identity and social entrepreneurial intention as mediated by ethical judgment.
H3. Psychological proximity moderates the indirect relationship between moral identity and social entrepreneurial intention as mediated by ethical judgment.
2. Research methods 2.1. Data collection and sample
A survey elicitation was distributed via various social media platforms to potential respondents with diverse demographic
characteristics in Indonesia. Indonesian context is a suitable context to study SE development because it is located within the ring of fire making it susceptible to natural disasters (Paramita et al., 2020). In addition, Indonesia has the fourth highest population in the world associated with a range of social and economic problems (Chandra et al., 2021a,b; Piesse, 2015). Therefore, the need for SE to assist the government to solve these problems and their negative impacts on society welfare is heightened in Indonesia than elsewhere.
The respondents were voluntarily participated in the study and were given the option of entering a draw for a monetary prize. As this study examines the intention to establish a socially oriented business, we filtered for those respondents who currently do not own social ventures. Respondents who own social ventures were redirected to the end of the survey. Subsequently, respondents filled out the survey by first responding to the questions about moral identity, ethical judgment, psychological proximity, and lastly the social entrepreneurial intention scale. Although ethical decision-making research is prone to social desirability bias, literature suggests that this type of bias is minimum when the ethical situation does not represent the respondents as being active moral perpetrators who cause harm to others (Singh et al., 2018). In our study, SEI (social entrepreneurial intention) represents a situation where an individual promotes welfare and cares for others. Thus, the social desirability bias is trivial (Muncy and Vitell, 1992; Singh et al., 2018). In the last section, respondents also answered questions about their demographic characteristics such as gender, education, age, business experience, and income.
2.1.1. Measurement instrument
All the variables were assessed using scales adapted from previous research and measured using a 5-point Likert scales which offered ranges from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5), except for the ethical judgment that was a 5-point semantic differential scale. The scales were back translated from English to Indonesian by a research scholar who has a good understanding of the entre- preneurship domain and is fluent in both English and Indonesian to ensure the wording and conceptual accuracy of the survey (Brislin, 1970). The scales and their corresponding sources are presented in Table 2.
3. Data analysis and results 3.1. Profiles of the respondents
Among 247 responses, 241 were completed and valid for further analysis. The sample is composed of those who do not have a business and those who already have a non-social/commercial business. Respondents were equally represented by male (50.2%) and female (49.8%). The majority of respondents are millennials (26–41 years old) (75.9%), hold a master’s degree (44.4%), and have an income of about IDR 2,000,000 to IDR 5,000,000 per month (40.7%).1 With all of these demographic factors taken into account, the sample is fairly representative to the general population of Indonesia. The demographic characteristics of the sample are shown in Table 1.
3.2. Measurement assessment
Factor analysis was performed to assess the convergent validity of the measures. The results revealed that 48 measurement items were grouped correctly in their respecting variables with loading factor scores above 0.5 indicating a valid measure, except for four items that were further removed from the subsequent analysis (please see Table 2 with the red coloured) (Hair et al., 2019). To assess measurement reliability, Cronbach’s alpha scores were tested for each variable resulting in scores above 0.8 which demonstrates a good level (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). The results of validity and reliability tests are presented in Table 2. Harmann’s single factor test produced a variance of 25.87% indicated that the common method variance was not substantial in the data set (Malholtra et al., 2006; Podsakoff et al., 2003). Lastly, the VIF scores were all between 1 and 10, indicated no multicollinearity among the predictors in this study (Hair et al., 2010). Correlation analysis was then performed to better understand the relationships between the variables correspond to the proposed relationship stated on the hypotheses (see Table 3).
4. Results
To test the hypotheses, we ran a regression using Hayes’ Macro Process with 5000 bootstrapping in an IBM SPSS Statistics 22 software. We ran two models for each hypothesis testing in which Model 1 only tested the focal constructs while Model 2 included the control variables (i.e., age and education) (Hockerts, 2017). We tested hypothesis 1 using Hayes’ Process Model 4 resulting in a significant direct relationship between moral identity and social entrepreneurial intention (β =0.228, SE =0.080, 95% CI:0.069 to 0.386). In addition, the result of Hayes’s Process Model 4 also demonstrated that the indirect relationship between moral identity and social entrepreneurial intention as mediated by ethical judgment is significant (β =0.1369, SE =0.043, 95% CI:0.057 to 0.226). Thus, hypothesis 2 is supported.
To test hypothesis 3, Hayes’ Process Model 14 was conducted. The results indicated a significant moderated-mediation relationship between moral identity and social entrepreneurial intention (β =0.187, SE =0.056, 95% CI:0.080 to 0.308). That is, this indirect relationship is only significant when psychological proximity score is high (β =0.259, SE =0.074, 95% CI:0.119 to 0.410), but turned insignificant when individual psychological proximity score is low (β =0.054, SE =0.042, 95% CI: 0.028 to 0.139). In conclusion, although individuals with high moral identity individuals evaluated social entrepreneurial intention as an ethical decision, they would only develop social entrepreneurial intention when they felt psychologically close to the social problems.
The analysis results were replicated for all hypotheses in Model 2 where we included the control variables. In other words, all the
1The exchange rate was 1 USD =IDR 14,534.49 as per July 4th, 2021 (XE, 2021).
hypotheses were supported in Model 2, indicating the robustness of our proposed research framework. We found that age (β = − 0.265, SE =0.084, 95% CI: 0.432 to − 0.099) effectively predicts social entrepreneurial intention, but not with education (β = − 0.078, SE = 0.044, 95% CI: 0.165 to 0.009). The overall hypotheses testing results are presented in Appendix.
5. Discussion
The present study contributes to both social entrepreneurship and ethical decision-making literatures. First, among multiple identities that individuals could have (Aquino and Reed II, 2002) this study extends the findings of previous study by showing that not only social identity and entrepreneurial identity (Siebold et al., 2019; Busenitz et al., 2016; Brandle et al., 2018) influence social entrepreneurial intention, but also moral identity. Second, this study established that social entrepreneurial intention can also be viewed as a moral decision as it was shaped by ethical judgment of social entrepreneurial decision. Despite the ongoing debate on whether social entrepreneurial intention is a moral decision or not (Bacq et al., 2016), this study offers an alternative explanation. Such that, for individuals with strong moral identity, social entrepreneurial intention is a moral decision and is developed based on ethical judgment. Yet, this is not the case for individuals with weak moral identity. In other words, depending on the moral quality of the individual, an individual’s social entrepreneurial intention can be considered to be a moral decision.
Third, this research adds to the literature by establishing the significant moderating influence of psychological proximity on the indirect relationship between moral identity and social entrepreneurial intention. Such that, only when strong moral identity in- dividuals feel psychologically close with the social problems, they are likely to translate the ethical judgment into social entrepre- neurial intention. Previous studies on social entrepreneurial intention have demonstrated the significant influence of contextual factors, including proximity, however they mainly focused on physical proximity (Smith and Stevens, 2010; Seyoum et al., 2021).
Thus, the influence of psychological proximity has not been explored. Therefore, not only that this study confirms the important role of proximity, it also extends the existing knowledge to include psychological proximity.
The findings of this study have several practical implications. As moral identity influences social entrepreneurial intention, gov- ernment, public policy makers, and educators who aim to promote social entrepreneurial intention may employ moral-identity approach. For instance, Smith and Woodworth (2012) found an educational method to prime a particular identity to increase stu- dents’ intention to be a social entrepreneur. Thus, educators can also prime moral identity of the students to promote social entre- preneurial intention. As previous studies have emphasized that moral identity can be activated using an exposure of moral cues (Winterich et al., 2013), public policy makers and government may utilize a social marketing campaign strategy that facilitate exposure to moral cues to increase individual moral identity as it may also increase social entrepreneurial intention.
Further and more importantly, as individuals whose strong moral identity will only be translated into social entrepreneurial intention when social problems are perceived as proximal, increasing the psychological proximity of social problems is a critical stage to develop social entrepreneurial intention. Previous studies found that psychological proximity can be enhanced by using an immersive media such as the omnidirectional 360-degree video (Breves and Schramm, 2021). The use of immersive media can be applied in the form of a social marketing strategy to promote social entrepreneurship. In addition, government and policy makers can Table 1
Respondents’ characteristics Demographics.
Demographic N %
Gender
Male 121 50.2
Female 120 49.8
Age
Pre-Millennials (42 years and older) 16 6.6
Millennials (41- 26 years) 183 75.9
Post-Millennials (17–25 years) 42 17.4
Educational Background
Elementary school 4 1.7
Middle School 2 0.8
High School 12 5.0
Diploma Degree 4 1.7
Bachelor’s Degree 105 43.6
Master’s Degree 107 44.4
Doctoral Degree 7 2.9
Average monthly income
Less than IDR 2,000,000 46 19.1
IDR 2,000,000 to IDR 5,000,000 98 40.7
IDR 5,000,000 to IDR 10,000,000 49 20.3
IDR 10,000,001 to IDR 20,000,000 48 19.9
also provide a more detailed information about social problems for general citizens to increase their knowledge, personal relevance, empathy, and emotional connectedness with the social problems (Lee et al., 2018). By doing so, it is likely that individuals who evaluate social entrepreneurial intention as a moral decision could establish a strong intention to create a social venture.
Despite the practical relevance of examining the Indonesian context, Indonesia is a developing country while previous studies showed that the factors affecting social entrepreneurial intention in developed differ from developing countries (de Sousa-Filho et al., 2020). In addition, Indonesia consists of approximately 300 ethnic groups and previous studies suggest that ethnic membership may Table 2
The results of validity and reliability tests.
Scale items Load Alpha
Moral Identity (Hardy et al., 2014) 0.894
“It would make me feel good to be a person who has these characteristics” 0.756
“Being someone who has these characteristics is an important part of who I am” 0.798
“I would be proud to be a person who has these characteristics” 0.771
“Having these characteristics is really important to me” 0.795
“I strongly desire to have these characteristics” 0.774
Psychological Proximity (Lee et al., 2018)
Cognitive Proximity 0.828
Salience
“This issue is essential” 0.478
“This issue needs to be addressed” 0.763
“This issue is a vital issue to be solved” 0.608
“This issue is valuable” 0.735
Knowledge
“I am knowledgeable regarding this issue” 0.614
“Compared to most other people, I know less about this issue” 0.807
“When it comes to this issue, I really do know a lot” 0.828
“I care about this issue” 0.291
Relevance
“Based on my past experience, this issue is relevant to me” 0.673
“This issue is relevant to people in my life” 0.817
“This issue matters to me because this matters to people in my life” 0.742
Emotional Proximity 0.749
Emotional Connectedness
“I feel that I am a part of this issue” 0.805
“Overall, I feel close to this issue” 0.713
“Overall, I feel distant from this issue” 0.670
Empathy
“Sometimes I feel sorry for people when they are having problems related to this issue” 0.712
“Other people’s misfortunes (related to this issue) do not usually disturb me a great deal” 0.518
“When I see someone suffering from this issue, I feel pity for them” 0.617
Ethical judgment (Barnett and Valentine 2004)
“Just – unjust” 0.861 0.843
“Fair– unfair” 0.817
“Morally right – not morally right” 0.772
Social Entrepreneurial Intention (Seyoum et al., 2021) 0.821
“I am determined to develop new products or services that benefit the society or the environment” 0.355
“I pay attention to industry news or search new ways that allow innovation which benefits the society or the environment” 0.356
“I constantly think about starting a new social business every day” 0.706
“I am ready to start anything to be a social entrepreneur” 0.739
“Starting a new social business would be one of my important accomplishments in my life” 0.647
Table 3
Correlation matrix.
MI PP EJ SEI
MI
PP 0.616**
EJ 0.533** 0.473**
SEI 0.322** 0.460** 0.334**
Notes: MI =Moral Identity, PP =Psychological Proximity, EJ =Ethical Judgment, SEI =Social Entrepreneurial Intention.
**p <0.01.
increase individual perception of psychological proximity for an in-group and psychological distance for an out-group (Portal Infor- masi Indonesia, 2017; Major et al., 1993), that might heighten the influence of psychological proximity. Future studies should aim to test the proposed research framework across different countries with various social structures.
6. Conclusion
Individuals with strong moral identity are more likely to judge social entrepreneurial intention as an ethical decision and subse- quently establish social entrepreneurial intention. Importantly, this indirect relationship is invalidated when individuals feel psy- chologically distant with the social problems. Thus, social entrepreneurial intention represents a moral decision when the individuals are psychologically close with the social problems. Accordingly, this study offers an array of theoretical contributions and practical implications for promoting social entrepreneurship.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Appendix. Hypotheses Testing Results
Model 1 (not including control variables) Model 2 (including control variables)
Relationship among variables β SE CI (lower to upper) Description β SE CI (lower to upper) Description Model summary of Model 4
R2 =0.374
F(3, 240) =19.460, p =0.000
Model summary of Model 4 R2 =0.6030
F(3, 240) =45.128, p =0.000
MI-SEI 0.228 0.080 0.069 to 0.386 Significant 0.044 0.081 0.086 to 0.408 Significant
MI-EJ-SEI 0.136 0.043 0.057 to 0.226 Significant 0.083 0.040 0.013 to 0.170 Significant
Model summary of Model 14 R2 =0.532
F(3, 240) =94.788, p =0.000
Model summary of Model 14 R2 =0.520
F(3, 240) =14.503, p =0.000
MI-EJ*PP-SEI 0.187 0.056 0.080 to 0.308 Significant 0.142 0.046 0.054 to 0.235 Significant
Low PP 0.054 0.042 −0.028 to 0.139 Non-significant 0.038 0.034 −0.025 to 0.114 Non-significant
High PP 0.297 0.074 0.119 to 0.4100 Significant 0.194 0.064 0.075 to 0.327 Significant
Age-SEI n.a. −0.265 0.084 −0.432 to − 0.099 Significant
Education-SEI n.a. −0.078 0.044 −0.165 to 0.009 Non-significant
Notes: MI =Moral Identity, PP=Psychological Proximity, EJ =Ethical Judgment, SEI =Social Entrepreneurial Intention.
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