Cross-cultural implications of linguistic future time reference and institutional uncertainty on social entrepreneurship

Abstract

Research Summary Using a sample of 205,792 individuals in 70 countries with 39 languages, this paper presents novel empirical evidence for how a language's future time reference, defined as the requirement that speakers mark time in the future, affects a speaker's likelihood of engaging in social entrepreneurship. FTR subtly shapes a speaker's temporal orientation, such that speaking a futured language (i.e., strong FTR) favors a short-term orientation which positively affects the likelihood of being a social entrepreneur. Furthermore, institutional uncertainty arising from weakly entrenched institutions moderates this relationship. Individuals who speak futured languages in contexts characterized by regulatory institutional uncertainty (weak rule of law, weak property rights, and strong corruption) are more likely to engage in social entrepreneurship. Theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Managerial Summary This paper examines the influence of language and regulatory institutions on an individual's decision to engage in social entrepreneurship. We show that entrepreneurial strategies towards social value creation are more likely to be pursued in countries where language is characterized as futured (i.e., using sentences with “will/shall?+?infinitive”) with the linguistic feature of future time reference (FTR). Moreover, the positive impact FTR has on the strategic decision to become a social entrepreneur intensifies when there is regulatory institutional uncertainty. That is, the probability an individual is a social entrepreneur increases when there is weak rule of law, weak property rights, and strong corruption within a country. In sum, our study highlights the important interplay between language, an overlooked cognitive institution, and regulatory institutions in shaping entrepreneurial behaviors and social outcomes.