*2.2. Life Satisfaction*

As prior studies have suggested, there may be a key mediator between prosocial motivation and exit intention [7,13,17,28]. Since social entrepreneurship can consume one's time and even impair one's personal life [7,25–27], prosocial motivation may considerably undermine life satisfaction. Thus, social entrepreneurs may consider ceasing their work to regain their diminished life satisfaction, expediting their exit intentions [62,63]. However, empirical studies examining this relationship are rare [64].

Diener et al. [65] defined life satisfaction as a cognitive judgmental process through which an entrepreneur assesses his or her quality of life as a whole. For entrepreneurs, being satisfied with life indicates that they appreciate the progress they have made in achieving their life goals in both work and family domains [66,67]. The two-layer model suggested by Ferrer-I-Carbonell et al. [68] and Erdogan et al. [69] indicates that life satisfaction has two dimensions: financial satisfaction and health satisfaction.

#### *2.3. Prosocial Motivation, Financial Satisfaction, and Exit Intention*

Financial satisfaction can be defined as a cognitive evaluation of one's present financial situation [70]. According to the Wharton Center, NYU Stern, and the Fuqua School, all social entrepreneurs do well (financially) by doing good (socially) [58], although it is a critical challenge [58,71–73]. Previous research based on a survey in the United Kingdom provided evidence that social entrepreneurs considered securing financial capital (to develop their businesses) as a major challenge [74]. Largely, adequate income and financial sustainability are buffers against the anxiety and psychological strains of running social businesses [50,75]. According to relevant studies, entrepreneurs who suffer from psychological strains due to financial difficulties will have lower levels of financial satisfaction, especially when financial difficulties are perceived as a signal of entrepreneurial failure [76].

Empirical research generally supports the relationship between financial satisfaction and exit intention among those who pursue prosocial careers. The motivation to pursue self-employment is often tied to economic concerns and the desire to create wealth [77,78]. However, for social entrepreneurs, the major pursuit is to achieve both financial and social goals [79]. Although economic outcomes are not regarded as the exclusive missions of social entrepreneurs [80], they may regre<sup>t</sup> their initial decisions to start such a business when they do not succeed financially [80,81]. Largely, social entrepreneurs focus on outcomes [79], and their commitments to their prosocial ideas, businesses, and products are often intense [82,83]. However, empirical evidence has shown that lower levels of financial satisfaction decrease social entrepreneurs' confidence in their own competence [84] because financial barriers can erode their commitments to their prosocial ideas, businesses, and products [80]. This negative emotion can be magnified, likely leading to intense regre<sup>t</sup> and decreased intention to sustain their social ventures [81]. Therefore, we hypothesize:

**Hypothesis 1a (H1a).** *Social entrepreneurs' prosocial motivations have a negative effect on their financial satisfaction*.

**Hypothesis 1b (H1b).** *Social entrepreneurs' prosocial motivations have an indirect effect on their exit intentions via financial satisfaction*.

#### *2.4. Prosocial Motivation, Health Satisfaction, and Exit Intention*

Health satisfaction is a cognitive judgment about the quality of one's overall mental and physical fitness [85,86]. Social entrepreneurs tend to have heavier workloads [32], encounter greater business risks, experience higher levels of job stress [87] and incur more psychosomatic ailments than other types of entrepreneurs [7]. Davis et al. [88], Ashton [89], and Kibler et al. [90] found that social entrepreneurs are passionate about their goals, but they are vulnerable to stress resulting from investing considerable time, effort, and cognitive resources needed to fulfill their many commitments on a daily basis. The passion for a prosocial business not only implies higher health costs [91,92] but can also induce anxiety when social entrepreneurs find their job responsibilities arduous or too overwhelming to achieve their prosocial goals; thus, inducing a lower level of health satisfaction [74,76,93,94].

Empirical research supports the relationship between health satisfaction and exit intentions among those who pursue prosocial careers. Poor health satisfaction can be costly in terms of the time and energy needed to perform work-related tasks [95]. Social entrepreneurship requires accessing resources beyond what is currently controlled or possessed, which is mostly rather arduous [96]. Thus, a deficient amount of time and energy for severe challenges mostly induces one's intention to exit. Therefore, we hypothesize:

**Hypothesis 2a (H2a).** *Social entrepreneurs' prosocial motivations have a negative effect on their health satisfaction*.

**Hypothesis 2b (H2b).** *Social entrepreneurs' prosocial motivations have an indirect effect on their exit intentions via health satisfaction*.

#### *2.5. The Moderating Role of Entrepreneur's Gender*

According to gender stereotypes, different careers can be perceived as masculine or feminine, conduced to the perceived attractiveness of careers [33,34]. Thus, individuals tend to choose their careers according to their socially recognized gender [97,98]. Prosocial behavior is related to empathy and a sense of social responsibility [99,100]; such values are typically associated with females [33,34]; namely, female entrepreneurs better fit the gender stereotypes of social entrepreneurs [101].

Although people aspire to jobs that are socially acceptable for their genders while avoiding those considered inappropriate [97,98], many engage in occupations that do not conform to gender stereotypes and, thus, may feel stereotype threats [102–104]. Previous research claimed that if an individual's social identity is tagged negatively by gender stereotypes, it could undermine his or her well-being and a sense of belonging [98]. According to Marshall [105], individuals who engage in social entrepreneurship can incur income insecurity over time. For male social entrepreneurs, earning less than a typical commercial entrepreneur may conflict with their gender stereotype as the "breadwinner" [106]; this, in turn, can induce the stereotype threat and amplify the negative effects of prosocial motivation on financial satisfaction [107]. In contrast, females are typically regarded as "caregivers" [106]. Thus, for female entrepreneurs, lower levels of income security due to sustaining social entrepreneurship are unlikely to amplify the negative effects of prosocial motivation on financial satisfaction.

Social entrepreneurship has a higher failure rate than commercial or regular entrepreneurship due to its complexity [108,109]. For male social entrepreneurs, this may conflict with their stereotypical heroic characterizations as income generators [102,110], which in turn can increase goal conflicts and negative emotions induced by prosocial

motivation [87,111,112]. This can engender the stereotype threat and, thus, amplify the negative effects of prosocial motivation on health satisfaction [113]. In contrast, as the gender stereotype implies, female entrepreneurs are less likely to be successful in developing profitable firms [108,109], and female social entrepreneurs who fail may have fewer negative emotions resulting from their prosocial motivations [7,53,64]. This, in turn, may ameliorate the negative effects of prosocial motivation on health satisfaction. Therefore, based on the arguments above, we hypothesize:

**Hypothesis 3a (H3a).** *The negative relationship between prosocial motivation and financial satisfaction is stronger for male entrepreneurs than for female entrepreneurs*.

**Hypothesis 3b (H3b).** *The negative relationship between prosocial motivation and health satisfaction is stronger for male entrepreneurs than for female entrepreneurs*.
