Social Impact: The Role of Authentic Leadership, Compassion and Grit in Social Entrepreneurship

This study examines the influence of leadership on social entrepreneurs; specifically, the impact of authentic leadership, compassion and grit on entrepreneurial processes and performance outcomes with a sample of Americans social entrepreneurs (n = 284). Entrepreneurial process dimensions include individual innovation, opportunity recognition and social networks, and performance outcomes encompass social and financial performance, capturing dual mission characteristics of social entrepreneurship. The differing impacts of authentic leadership, compassion and grit are demonstrated, where authentic leadership influences all the dependent variables listed above, while compassion has a lesser positive influence on outcomes, except economic performance. Grit, only has a positive influence on innovation and economic performance. This research highlights that authentic leadership through its meaningful engagement is a more effective driver of multiple outcomes in social entrepreneurship, confirming that this new social business form works well with this newer social entrepreneurship leadership style.