Founder Commercial Imprint Interacts with Strategic Orientations in Affecting Social Enterprise Performance

Many social enterprises have founders who worked in commercial organisations before they engaged in social entrepreneurship, but how that sort of individual-level imprinting exerts an enduring effect on social enterprise performance remains under-examined. Drawing from imprinting theory and the strategic orientation literature, this study examines how and under which conditions social entrepreneurs' commercial imprint plays a significant role in shaping the performance of their social enterprises. Studying 230 social enterprises in China, this research shows that founders' most recent for-profit work experience prior to starting their social enterprise has an enduring impact on organisational performance. Moreover, when the founder commercial imprint aligns with the strategic choice that the social enterprise leverages, it creates more benefits for social enterprise performance. This study provides insights into how social entrepreneurs' career imprints transfer and are adapted to the context of social entrepreneurship. In addition, it enriches the literature by identifying boundary conditions of imprinting effects regarding social enterprise performance.