SOCIAL ENTRENEURSHIP AND COMMUNITY RESILENCE

This study investigates the relationship between Social Entrepreneurship (SE) and Community Resilience (CR), addressing a recognized gap in the existing literature. Social entrepreneurship is defined as the simultaneous pursuit of economic, social, and environmental goals by enterprising ventures, providing practical, innovative responses to unmet societal needs. Community resilience refers to the collective ability of a community to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or recover from the effects of hazardous events, particularly in the context of increasing climate change impacts globally and in developing countries like Nigeria. The research focuses on the impact of three key aspects of social entrepreneurship—intention, self-efficacy, and outcome expectation—on community resilience. The study is guided by the following objectives: To examine the relationship between social entrepreneurship intention and community resilience. To investigate the relationship between social entrepreneurship self-efficacy and community resilience. To evaluate the relationship between social entrepreneurship outcome expectation and community resilience. The study posits null hypotheses suggesting no significant relationship for each of the specific objectives. Conducted in Ekosodin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, from February to April 2024, the findings are anticipated to significantly contribute to the field of social change. Specifically, the results are expected to enhance the capacity of social entrepreneurship managers to measure and report social outcomes, potentially boosting investor confidence and facilitating greater financial resources for scaling their services and improving social results. The research adopts a conceptual framework rooted in entrepreneurial intention theories, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior.