공감은 사회적 기업가의 주요 특징 중 하나로 많은 연구자들의 지지를 받아왔다. 그러나 공감이 탁월하다고 하여 반드시 사회적 기업가 의도로 직접 연결되는 것이 아니라, 공감은 자기효능감과 같은 특정한 매개요인을 통해 간접적으로 사회적 기업가 의도로 이어질 수 있다. 따라서 공감이 뛰어난 사람이 어떠한 과정을 통해 사회적 기업가 의도로 연결되는지에 대한 동기부여 과정의 매커니즘을 이해할 필요가 있다. 이에 본 연구는 공감과 사회적 기업가 의도의 관계에 대한 혼재된 연구결과들의 관계를 정리하고, 이들 관계가 작동하는 매커니즘 규명에 초점을 둔다. 구체적인 연구 목적은 다음과 같다. 첫째 본 연구는 공감과 사회적 기업가 의도의 관계에 대해 확인한다. 둘째, 본 연구는 사회기업가적 자기효능감과 사회적 기업가 의도의 관계에 대해 검증한다. 셋째, 본 연구는 공감과 사회적 기업가 의도의 관계에 대한 사회적 기업가 효능감의 매개효과에 대해 검증한다. 마지막으로, 공감이 사회기업가적 자기효능감을 매개하여 사회적 기업가 의도에 미치는 효과가 성별에 따라 다른지 성별의 조절된 매개효과에 대해 검증한다. 본 연구는 전국 소재 일반 근로자들을 대상으로 하였으며, 자료 수집은 온라인 설문조사를 통해 이루어졌다. 총 342개의 자료가 수집되었고, 이 중 335개의 자료가 최종 분석에 활용되었다. 수집된 자료는 SPSS 25.0 프로그램과 Hayes’ PROCESS macro version 3.1 (Hayes, 2013)을 사용하여 분석하였다. 연구 결과, 첫째, 공감은 사회적 기업가 의도에 긍정적 영향을 미치는 것으로 확인되었고, 둘째, 사회기업가적 자기효능감 역시 사회적 기업가 의도에 긍정적 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 공감은 사회기업가적 자기효능감에 매개되어 사회적 기업가 의도가 증가하는 것으로 분석되었다. 마지막으로 이러한 일련의 매커니즘에 대한 성별의 조절된 매개효과는 남성이 여성보다 더 강한 것으로 확인되었다. 이상의 결과를 토대로 학문적, 실무적 시사점이 제시되었고 기존 연구의 한계점을 토대로 향후 연구 방향이 함께 제시되었다.
As social inequality issues increase worldwide, research on social entrepreneurs has attracted attention from many researchers. In this social flow, many efforts have been made to characterize social entrepreneurs in recent years. Although research on SE intentions(SE intentions) is less known than entrepreneurial intentions, empathy is considered as an important trait of social entrepreneurs to predict social entrepreneurship intentions (Asma, et al., 2019; Dees, 2012; Hockerts, 2015, 2017; Mair & Noboa, 2006). However, research results on the effect of empathy on SE intention vary depending on the researcher. Some researchers argue that empathy predicts SE intention (Asma, et al., 2019; Hockerts, 2017; Ip, Wu, Liu, & Liang, 2017; Mair & Noboa, 2006), while other researchers claim that empathy and SE intention are not directly related (Bacq & Alt, 2018; Lacap, Mulyaningsih, & Ramadani, 2018). In addition, there are limitations to the simple causal approach to understanding the relationship between empathy and SE intention. The empathy, for example, does not mean that everyone has a high SE intention. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the mechanism of the motivation process about how SE intention is formed by a person with excellent empathy. In this regard, this study focuses on understanding the mechanism of these relationships by identifying the relationship between mixed research results on the relationship between empathy and SE intention, and expanding prior studies. The specific purpose of the study is as follows. First, this study confirms the relationship between empathy and SE intention. Second, this study verifies the relationship between social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social entrepreneur intention. Third, the mediating effect of social entrepreneurship efficacy on the relationship between empathy and SE intention is verified. Finally, we examine whether the effect of empathy on SE intention by mediating social entrepreneurial self-efficacy is differentiated by gender. The sample of this study is the general workers, and data collection was conducted through an online survey. A total of 335 data were used for the final analysis, and the collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 program and Hayes" PROCESS macro version 3.1 (Hayes, 2013). The hypothesis test was conducted through Process Macro Model 4 and Model 7. The results of this study are as follows. First, empathy was found to have a positive effect on SE intention, and second, social entrepreneurship self-efficacy was also found to have a positive effect on SE intention. Third, it was analyzed that empathy was mediated by social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and that the SE intention increased. Finally, the controlled mediating effect of gender on this series of mechanisms was found to be stronger for men than for women. This study contributes to the theory of SE intention and the expansion of literature. Existing studies have focused on general entrepreneurial intentions, but this study focuses on SE intentions. In addition, unlike previous studies that dealt with empathy as a simple predictor of SE intention (Forster & Grichnik, 2013; Hockerts, 2015, 2017), this study highlights a motivational mechanism for empathy to increase SE intention through social entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Therefore, this study provides insights into the mechanism of these relationships in that they focused on SE intentions and identified roles of empathy and social entrepreneurship self-efficacy. This study can be used as a basis for fostering and selecting social entrepreneurs. Miller et al. (2012) argued that empathy is an important competency to be taught in social entrepreneurship education. The results of this study show that a person with excellent empathy can increase SE"s intention by increasing social entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Thus, instructors will be able to encourage learners to increase awareness of social problems and how to solve them by constructing a curriculum of student-centered learning approaches such as team collaboration and problem-based learning. In addition, through a variety of problem learning bases, indirect learning experiences can contribute to social entrepreneurship self-efficacy.