Linking social entrepreneurship to employee commitment and helping behavior: evidence from South Korea

Purpose This study aims to investigate the internal processes of social enterprises, particularly focusing on human capital. Drawing from social identity theory, the authors propose the relationships among social entrepreneurship (SE), organizational commitment (OC), and helping behavior (HB) and the contextual effect of participatory decision-making (PDM). Design/methodology/approach The authors utilized secondary survey data obtained from 1,776 employees of a social enterprise in South Korea. The survey was conducted by the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency. Findings The authors confirmed the mediating effect that SE had a positive relationship with HB through OC. In addition, PDM showed a positive moderating effect on the indirect effect. Originality/value Social enterprises have emerged as an alternative business model in the non-profit sector, but numerous socio-economic crises have forced them to become self-reliant. This study highlights the value of the employees in the social enterprise, who can realize the double-bottom line. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2024-1024.