Entrepreneurial alertness, self-efficacy and social entrepreneurship intentions Boris Urban University of the Witwatersrand Business School, Johannesburg, South Africa Abstract Purpose – Considering that many unanswered questions remain regarding the antecedents to entrepreneurial intentions, the purpose of this study is to develop insights from existing theories in entrepreneurship frameworks and apply these in the social entrepreneurship context. Consequently the study examines to what extant beliefs and cognitions shape social entrepreneurial intentions. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses were statistically tested using multiple regression analyses based on survey data (n 5 156) from individuals in South Africa. Findings – Results support the hypotheses where entrepreneurial alertness significantly explained social entrepreneurial intentions, while self-efficacy showed a positive mediating effect in this relationship. Practical implications – Policymakers encouraging social entrepreneurship should not only focus on external support factors such as financial support but also deliberately develop interventions by focusing on beliefs and cognitions, which the study has identified as important predictors of social entrepreneurship intentions. Originality/value – By introducing previously unrelated individual-level factors to social entrepreneurship, closer empirical links are created between these factors in this study. Keywords Social entrepreneurship, Social entrepreneurial intentions, Entrepreneurial alertness, Self-efficacy, Dispositional optimism, South Africa Paper type Research paper Introduction There is general consensus that social entrepreneurship (SE) resides within the broader field of entrepreneurship, as scholars have started theoretical development and empirical research on various phenomena related to SE (Brieger and De Clercq, 2019; Lortie and Cox, 2018; Rivera-Santos et al., 2015; Urban, 2015). SE as field of enquiry has now advanced “beyond its early focus on descriptive anecdotal case evidence and preoccupation with definitional issues” (Bacq and Janssen, 2011, p. 375). Consequently, “the greatest opportunity for scholars interested in SE is in examining valuable assumptions and insights from theories inherent in existing entrepreneurship frameworks and then applying these insights in ways that address phenomena in the SE context” (Lortie and Cox, 2018, p. 941). One such area of investigation is entrepreneurial intention, which is an established area of research within the field of entrepreneurship and where “as new knowledge on this topic emerges, so do more questions surface which need addressing” (Li~ n an and Fayolle, 2015, p. 923). Investigating entrepreneurial intentions may prove valuable in the SE domain, since several researchers (Bacq and Alt, 2018; Mair and Noboa, 2003, 2006; Urban and Teise, 2015) have argued that SE is primarily driven by intentions and furthermore, is influenced by combinations of motives and cognitions, such as entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) (Sharir and Lerner, 2006). Apart from the SE intentions model developed by Mair and Noboa (2006), which showed how perceptions of desirability are affected by emotional and cognitive attitudes (such as empathy and moral judgement), little empirical research has taken place which examines the influence of both motives and cognitive factors on SE intentions. Recognising this gap in the literature and heeding the call to garner insights from existing entrepreneurship theories, Entrepre- neurial alertness, self-efficacy 489 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1462-6004.htm Received 22 August 2019 Revised 8 January 2020 Accepted 26 January 2020 Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development Vol. 27 No. 3, 2020 pp. 489-507 © Emerald Publishing Limited 1462-6004 DOI 10.1108/JSBED-08-2019-0285