Social entrepreneurial leadership in higher education institutions

This study evaluated the social entrepreneurial leader training capacity and competence levels of higher education institutions in Turkey. The research was designed according to the convergent parallel design by the mixed method. The study was carried out on documents belonging to two different universities, one state and the other foundation, and the opinions of senior students. The qualitative data of the research are included in the strategic plans of the universities, quality documents, annual reports, internal evaluation reports, etc. It was obtained by subjecting the document analysis according to the social responsibility, innovation, influence, and sustainability dimensions of social entrepreneurial leadership. The quantitative data of the study were collected with the help of the Social Entrepreneurial Leadership Scale developed by the researcher. The quantitative sample of the research consisted of 958 senior students studying at both universities included in the study and determined by the cluster sampling technique. Quantitative data were analyzed using the arithmetic mean, pairwise, and multiple comparison techniques. In the analysis, t-test and ANOVA were preferred as comparison techniques for data showing normal distribution. According to the findings obtained in the qualitative dimension of the research, it is stated that the social responsibility dimension of social entrepreneurial leadership is discussed with the themes of social benefit, social contribution, social benefit, responsibility, community benefit, and social sensitivity in the written documents and documents of both universities within the scope of the research; In the innovation dimension, the themes of entrepreneurship, innovation, productivity, participation, creativity, fundraising, and risk-taking were expressed; In the extent of influence, it was determined that the themes such as visibility, directing to goals, sharing, participation, student satisfaction were highlighted. In the sustainability dimension of entrepreneurial leadership, it has been determined that the themes of change, transformation, development, quality orientation, openness to innovation, support, sensitivity to society, and continuous review are emphasized. According to the findings obtained by the analysis of the quantitative data in the research, it was determined that in both higher education institutions where the study was conducted, the students evaluated the administrators and instructors at a "high" level in all dimensions of social entrepreneurial leadership and total. According to the gender variable, students' opinions differ in all dimensions. Accordingly, the social entrepreneurial leadership capacities of universities are higher than male students. While the social entrepreneurial leadership perceptions of the students differ in terms of social responsibility according to the universities they have studied, they do not change in the dimensions of innovation, influence, and sustainability. When the social entrepreneurial leadership perception levels of the students were considered according to the variable of the field of study, it was determined that the opinions differed in all dimensions. While the perception of social entrepreneurial leadership does not differ according to the success of the students, it differs significantly in the dimensions of influence and sustainability according to the career plan variable. The social entrepreneurial leadership perceptions of the university students who take entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship courses are higher in all dimensions than the students who do not take these courses. The findings were discussed based on the relevant literature, and suggestions were made for practitioners and researchers at the end of the research.