Contributions of emotional intelligence to social entrepreneurial intention: Evidence from an emerging nation

Abstract In emerging economies, social entrepreneurship is becoming more widely recognized as a means of optimizing societal value. Examining the impact of emotional intelligence on students' intentions to pursue social entrepreneurship is the primary goal of this research project. The university students in Bangladesh were the study's target population. An online survey with self-administered questions was created to gather data from 334 Bangladeshi students. This study is exploratory and quantitative in nature. For this study purpose non-probability random sampling and convenience methods were applied to collect the data. Reliability was considered to be measured with a Cronbach's alpha ( α ) value of 0.70 or above. The study found the reliability of the constructs like self-awareness ( α = 0.868), self-management ( α = 0.895), social awareness ( α = 0.867), relationship management ( α = 0.948), and social entrepreneurial intention (0.864). The model was evaluated and the hypotheses were confirmed using SPSS v26.0 at the 5% significance level. Furthermore, this study's findings show 0.678 percent, or 67.8%, of the variance in Social Entrepreneurial Intention, which is valuable for the body of knowledge in this field of study. These findings could help academics, community organizations, non-governmental organizations, government, and civil society develop successful policies and initiatives to support students' plans to grow their social entrepreneurship in Bangladesh.