Social capital built by social entrepreneurs and the specific personality traits that facilitate the process

Social entrepreneurs are passionate, ethical individuals who introduce new approaches to solving challenging social issues. The hypothesis assumes that in pursuing their goals, social entrepreneurs apply specific methods leading to building social capital and, further, that they exhibit specific personality traits that help facilitate those methods. The building of social capital was studied by comparing methods used by social entrepreneurs and leading social activists. Moreover, seven personality traits deemed critical to building social capital were identified and their prevalence in society at large compared to their prevalence among leading social entrepreneurs and activists. The research reveals that the personality traits of social entrepreneurs and social activists differ significantly from those found in the general society in all seven categories, and that the traits of the social entrepreneurs differ significantly from the social activists' in two of the seven. Both social entrepreneurs and social activists use methods that build social capital. However, social entrepreneurs tend to avoid all methods that do not lead to building social capital, whereas social activists use non-social-capital-building methods as well. peerReviewed publishedVersion