Timmons' Framework

Social entrepreneurship subjects mainly include entrepreneurs and organizations. Social entrepreneurs are regarded as a rare change agent. They have the ability, resources, and the internal motivation to encourage themselves to persist in completing social entrepreneurial activities. Unlike traditional entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs are not driven by profit, but by social influences, also known as "prosocial motivation". Prosocial motivation is rooted in the values of universalism and benevolence. It emphasizes creating benefits for others, encourages social entrepreneurs to seek new means of social value creation, and profoundly affects the identification, development and use of social entrepreneurial opportunities. Social entrepreneurs with altruistic thoughts show a strong tendency of empathy. As an important premise of social entrepreneurial willingness, empathy encourages social entrepreneurs to voluntarily take altruistic actions, putting social values above personal interests. And social entrepreneurs have a strong sense of self-efficacy, full of confidence in their ability to carry out entrepreneurial tasks related to social innovation . Moreover, they have a strong sense of moral responsibility. Social entrepreneurs' perception of social morality can exert social pressure on them, thus affecting their decision-making and willingness to start a business. Finally, social entrepreneurs have a socially innovative mindset that can effectively identify, develop and utilize social entrepreneurship opportunities. In addition, previous experiences also affect the entrepreneurial motivation of social entrepreneurs. Some studies point out that individual social values are the product of their own experiences and social perceptions. Childhood trauma, low academic discrimination, job insecurity could change individuals' perception of their surrounding environment, promoting the occurrence of prosocial behaviors. For example, private entrepreneurs with adverse social experiences, such as limited educational opportunities, unemployment and rural poverty, are also more likely to participate in charitable poverty reduction programs. In addition, social entrepreneurs, like traditional entrepreneurs, still need to have the basic ability to piece together resources and organize management. They need to deal with more complex organizational matters in order to meet the expectations of more diverse stakeholders. Although they have their own pro-social goals, they also have to take commercial actions to obtain economic income, so as to meet the sustainable development of enterprises.

In general, research on social entrepreneurs has shifted from identity definition to analysis of entrepreneurial motivations and behaviors. However, it is unclear that which specific behaviors of social entrepreneurs are more effective in promoting entrepreneurial success and what kind of emotional appeals contribute to the relevant behavioral choices. We can further increase the analysis of resource acquisition from the individual micro-level in the future. In this respect, Free and his colleagues have provided some thoughts, but we still know very little about individual entrepreneurs. In order to enrich the understanding of entrepreneurs, we can consider exploring the cognition and emotion in the process of entrepreneurs' resource acquisition. Finally, the survival and development of social enterprises not only require entrepreneurs to have pro-social motives, but also require them to implement entrepreneurial behavior with certain economic intentions. So the question, that is how social entrepreneurs should balance their intrinsic social value pursuits and external economic goals, remains to be further studied.