Push Motivations

Consistent with prior studies of commercial entrepreneur (Hisrich and Brush, 1986;

Brockhaus, 1980; Cromie and Hayes, 1991), dissatisfaction with job is also one of the push motivations of social entrepreneur. From our questionnaire result (Table 4.4), we found that most of the social entrepreneurs do not enjoy their work before startup. According to one of the social entrepreneur, she actually not so interested with what she was doing, and that’s the key reason for why she fell dissatisfied.

A1: 創業前的生活很規律啊, 其實還 OK, 除了工作內容沒有那麼大興趣以外, 應該說 不是沒有興趣, 就等於說其實就是在用時間在換錢, 就是那個passion比較少.

B2: 我就覺得我的生活反覆, 我就覺得我把我生活裡面最好的一段精華都去做我不想 做的事情, 我只是為了有一口飯吃這樣子.

(2) Spiritual Emptiness

For commercial entrepreneurs, their dissatisfaction of life is mainly due to unfulfilled materially desire. In contrast with them, we found that social entrepreneurs do not have very much desire of the materially life. According to one of the social entrepreneur, suffering from spiritual life or spiritual emptiness is the main reason for him to startup his business.

C3: 我不滿意主要是一個精神上的, 我對這個世界, 對這個社會有強大的疑問, 我那 個時候當然也沒有錢, 但是我 suffer的主要不是錢, 是一種精神上的, 或是心靈的一個 狀態, 那是對我非常非常痛苦的.

(3) Family Pressure

Relationship is a very important part of our life, for most of the people, sacrificing for the person they love is a very normal thing. In our data, we had a founder because she did not have the heart to let her boyfriend (current husband) to struggle alone, then she decided to quit her job and jumped in to help him.

TV Report: D4在日常生活上是一個實際又理性的人, 但是却又也支持著男友天馬行空

的夢想. 其實D4常常希望能把男友拉回現實的層面, 但是她也知道男友是一個堅持的 人, 堅持追求她七年, 也堅持只做公益和社會改造的工作, 不過當 D4知道男友堅持租 了一個破爛又沒有人潮的店的時候, D4知道自己不可以在袖手旁觀了.

(4) Life Inspiration

Inspiration from the life experiences is the key for many innovators and artists to develop their works. For the social entrepreneurs, from our data, we found that most of the social entrepreneurs more or less have certain kind of inspiration from their previous life experiences. For examples, we found social entrepreneurs who were inspired by the revelation of god or people they met, we also found social entrepreneurs who were inspired by a new idea or just simply knowing the truth of something. All of these inspirations from life experiences are not only the foundation of their business startup but also change their life in many ways.

A1: 2013年2月底的時候我參加了一個國際的會議, 叫做justice conference,… …, 那一 場會議就是讓我有很大的思考這樣子, 這些人(NPO的founders), 你看這些founders都 是因為理想開始做這些事情, 那他們都是直接在做這些事情, 而且你看到他們的姿態 都非常的低,… …, 我就看到他們的那一個姿態, 就看到每一個 founder 他們的黑眼袋

都很 strong, 壓力很大, 可是他們還是很喜悅的在做他們在做的事情, 所以是那個時候,

那個 conference 之後就讓我覺得, 對啊, 如果我要做什麼, 他們都已經做成這樣了, 我

應該join, 跳下來做這樣子.

B2: (大學的時候)有一部份時間我也參與學校比較學運的社團, 也有參與過幾次街頭

的抗爭, 從那個時候開始我就有一些比較左派的啟蒙,… …, 當然到了後來我決定要做 咖啡店的時候,… …,我才了解到原來有公平貿易咖啡,… …, 因為我自己之前有比較左 派的知識啟蒙, 對那些東西都很感興趣, 就會想說既然要開店, 那當然就做一點這方 面的事情這樣子.

C3: 那個天啟其實在當兵的時候就開始了, 那是對大自然的, 對人的,… …, 但總的說 其來就是一個天啟, 我發現我覺得是上天要我去做的.

E5: 我在英國看到了公平貿易運動, … …, 我第一次知道說世界有公平貿易運動在解 決世界貿易不平等的這件事，而且是有具體的產品, … …, (當時)埋在心理知道這樣一 個事情, 正好開了眼界.

F6: 所以我就自己決定去探索我的咖啡莊園, 沒想這一走下去完了, 我發現所到之處 所看到幾乎都不是我想看到的, 看到的都是很慘忍的畫面, 這些農民幾乎每一個都破

產,… …,那麼回來之後我覺得我很不適應, 所以那段時間我大概沉寂了快兩年, 兩年我

都不想碰咖啡, 兩年不想工作, 兩年很憂鬱,… …, 我突然那一刻覺得我通通都做錯了, 所以我在沉寂兩年之後, 在2009年我決定自己去找我的小農, 然後我就前進到非洲了.

5.1.2 Pull Motivations