Young people are more likely than any other age group to become social entrepreneurs, according to a new comprehensive study.
A nationwide survey of social entrepreneurial activity undertaken by the London Business School shows that 3.9% of those between the ages of 18 and 24 will pursue a socially minded enterprise, compared to just 2.75% of people over age 55.
Currently, across the UK, some 1.2m adults, or 3.2% of the working population, are social entrepreneurs, who hold more positive attitudes towards enterprise than their traditional entrepreneurial counterparts, and are driven by the desire to make a social or community difference.
However, they are often constrained by the fear of not getting finance.
The London Business School’s second annual Social Enterprise Monitor Report, published by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) UK, also found education to be a strong predictor of social entrepreneurial activity, with those in full-time education most likely to be active in social enterprise.
Women are also proportionately more driven to social entrepreneurship than to mainstream entrepreneurial careers despite the fact that, overall, men are more likely to be social entrepreneurs than women at a rate of 3.6% to 2.8%, respectively.
The report named rural locations as the most socially entrepreneurial, and Black Africans and Black Caribbeans are, respectively, three and two times more likely than whites to be social entrepreneurs.
“The importance of understanding the motivations of social entrepreneurs and the role that the enterprises they establish have to play in generating wealth in the UK cannot be understated,” said Dr Rebecca Harding, author of the report.
“If we are to build an entrepreneurial culture around this new, socially and environmentally sustainable business model then we should be attempting to change cultures and attitudes from school upwards. Our evidence suggests that training would be a good way of doing this, especially for excluded groups.”