**5. Discussion**

This study reflects our attempt to respond to the criticism that social entrepreneurship research has been constricted and to open the "black box" regarding the relationship between prosocial motivation and exit intentions [6,9]. Scholars have noted that "[o]ur desire—our need—to open up the black box is not just a matter of scholarly curiosity; it is essential for ultimately improving the insights we can provide... " [138]. Largely, this research represents a substantive step in this direction.

#### *5.1. Theoretical Implications*

Although scholars who study social entrepreneurship have already highlighted the effects of prosocial motivation on entrepreneurs' exit intentions [6,9], they have largely overlooked the mechanism behind this relationship. Our study adopted the theoretical perspective, the hierarchical approach to personality [21,22], to explore such a mechanism between entrepreneurs' personality traits and entrepreneurial outcomes. Our findings indicate that prosocial motivation (as a personality trait) can be linked to the entrepreneurial outcome exit intention through entrepreneurs' financial satisfaction. Thus, our findings advance extant scholarships, especially concerning the relationship between personality traits and entrepreneurial outcomes [17].

Specifically, we found that financial satisfaction mediated the nexus between prosocial motivation and exit intentions. These findings are well in line with the literature [50,75,76]. A simple but plausible explanation for these results is that social entrepreneurs need adequate financial support to handle a wide range of financial challenges [50,61], easily leading to a lower level of financial satisfaction [76]. If financial satisfaction runs low for social entrepreneurs, it could erode their confidence (in their own competence), encouraging them to regre<sup>t</sup> the career paths they have chosen [82,83], thereby engendering their exit intentions.

Furthermore, we found that the negative impact of prosocial motivation on financial satisfaction was stronger for male entrepreneurs than for female social entrepreneurs. This suggests that gender stereotypes about occupational choice can enhance the negative impact of being a social entrepreneur (on financial satisfaction), possibly leading to stronger intentions to exit. These results respond to previous researchers' calls as to why social enterprises are more likely to be started by men than by women, but the gender gap throughout the entrepreneurial life cycle is not large anymore [30]. Our findings further show the potential gender stereotype threat and relevant issues in the context of social entrepreneurship.

Contrary to our prediction, we found that health satisfaction did not mediate the relationship between prosocial motivation and exit intention. This is possibly due to the age of the sampled entrepreneurs. Although satisfaction with one's health is normally based on one's actual health status, the strength of this relationship might not be the same across the age range. Prior studies claimed that health satisfaction trajectories are relatively flat throughout the lifespan before age 50 and then decrease sharply afterward until the end of one's lifespan [139,140]. This is because people over 50 are particularly intolerant of the early signs of aging [140]. In our study, over 65% of the respondents were below 45 years old; therefore, the health satisfaction of these entrepreneurs could be inflated.

### *5.2. Practical Implications*

According to our findings, prosocial motivation, the typical personality trait of social entrepreneurs, can cause exit intention via life-related wellbeing, such as financial satisfaction. Thus, entrepreneurship educators may need to be aware of the mechanisms, given the high possible failure rate of social entrepreneurs in achieving prosocial goals. Moreover, only focusing on successful case studies for training programs on entrepreneurship can be problematic and misleading. Given our findings that financial satisfaction was a significant mediator, it is necessary to develop the social entrepreneurs' capabilities to acquire financial and institutional support and to encourage them to develop budgeting policies to achieve prosocial goals. Furthermore, given our finding that male social entrepreneurs may have a lower level of life satisfaction compared to female entrepreneurs, relevant governmen<sup>t</sup> agencies should provide greater support, including relevant policies, facilities, training programs, and consultation availabilities to promote gender role equality and life satisfaction.

#### **6. Limitations and Future Research Directions**

This study is not without limitations. First, our analyses should be replicated with different samples from various countries. The distinctive characteristics of China's society, culture, and lifestyle may help explain the findings of this study. As different economic, cultural, and institutional business environments can affect socially-oriented entrepreneurial activities differently [119,141–144], further research could involve other economic, cultural, and institutional contexts to test the generalizability of our findings.

Second, besides the variables included in this research, other social, biological, occupational, and professional factors may influence the path from prosocial motivation to exit intention. Therefore, additional levels of analysis would further help explicate the individual vs. contextual influences.

Third, future studies involving the potential dimensions of wellbeing or satisfaction as the mediators, and unveiling how they function uniformly or differentially, can help to further our understanding of the nuances in these relationships.

Fourth, in future research, human capital features, such as education, experience, and skills, need to be included as the control variables to further our findings.
