Reconstructing the Meaning of the Entrepreneurship as Creating Value and Gaining Social Benefit: A Qualitative Research from the Perspective of NGOs Managers

Abstract
Today, one of the concepts of interest in the field of economic sociology is the concept of entrepreneurship. From the point of view of social scientists, entrepreneurship is a process that is located in a changing network of social relations, and these social relations can regulate the entrepreneur’s relationship with resources and opportunities. The purpose of this research is to qualitatively study the meaning of the structure of entrepreneurship from the perspective of NGOs managers. The research method is qualitative content analysis, and in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 managers of active and licensed sports clubs from the General Directorate of Sports and Youth of West Azarbaijan Province. NGOs managers have been selected using the purposeful sampling method and taking into account the rule of saturation and maximum diversity. The findings obtained from examining the content of in-depth interviews led to the identification of 114 primary concepts. These basic concepts were categorized into 16 subcategories. The obtained sub-categories include the optimal use of one’s own and others’ capacities in creating the examination and text of the interviews finally led to the identification of 6 main categories including 1) social benefit, 2) value creation, 3) social change, 4) innovation and commercialization, 5) economic independence and 6) empowerment. The obtained findings show that the managers of NGOs do not have an economic reductionist approach to the structure of entrepreneurship, but the approach of NGOs managers to the concept of entrepreneurship is a multidimensional economic, social and cultural approach. NGOs managers considered entrepreneurship as gaining social benefit and they paid attention to non-economic benefits in entrepreneurship. Also, NGOs managers considered entrepreneurship not as earning economic income but as creating value in society. 
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Commercialization, NGOs, Social Benefit, Value Creation.
 
1. Introduction
The rapid changes and developments of science and technology in recent years have made the countries of the world face new challenges that require the use of creative approaches and methods (Javadi et al., 2022: 141). Among them, the role of entrepreneurship and the value of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial behavior are of great importance and in most countries, entrepreneurship has been interpreted as the engine of economic growth and development (Abbasi et al., 2023: 17). Entrepreneurship can contribute to development by discovering opportunities and using them properly, creating employment opportunities, and changing the living environment (Obschonka et al, 2017). Therefore, entrepreneurship is considered one of the main factors of economic value creation and an efficient tool for creating effective, sustainable employment and reducing the number of unemployed (Zhang et al, 2020). Four elements of empathy, moral judgment, self-efficacy and perceived social support play a significant role in the formation of entrepreneurial behavior (Gomez Lakap, 2018). In the formation of entrepreneurship in society, the role of NGOs is undoubtedly more prominent and significant. NGOs are mostly non-profit individual or organizational voluntary groups that are usually not affiliated with any government and are formed at the local, national or international level to provide services or public policy (Karnes, 2016). (Hatami Khaljan et al., 2023). Non-governmental organizations through publishing and public information (communications), attracting public participation (public mobilization), collecting small public donations and resources (resource mobilization), creating and expanding and strengthening coordination with governments in shaping the platform and space Entrepreneurship plays an important role. Therefore, the main question of the research is, what conclusions do the managers of NGOs have about the concept of entrepreneurship? How do NGOs managers interpret the concept of entrepreneurship in their own literature? What factors, conditions and platforms do you consider the formation of entrepreneurship to be affected?
 
2. Materials and Methods
Regarding the influence of the socio-cultural environment on entrepreneurship, Max Weber argues that the socio-cultural systems in which people live form a set of values that are based on the personal values and thought patterns of people, and these in turn It affects people’s decisions to become entrepreneurs or not (Hemmati & Raji, 2022: 150). Another concept related to the field of entrepreneurship is related to the cultural values of society. Behavioral patterns related to the environment lead to the formation of different cultural values in different societies, some of which influence the decision to create a new business (Akhtar & Sumi, 2014). From the point of view of social network theory, entrepreneurship is a process that is located in a network of social relationships and these relationships can facilitate the entrepreneur’s relationship with limited resources and opportunities (Soltani Bahram et al., 2020). According to the presented materials, the proposed theories have investigated the reality of entrepreneurship in different structures. However, the important shortcoming of the proposed theories is that they have not paid attention to the meaning emerging from the mental world of the actors. Also, none of the conducted researches have investigated the meaning of entrepreneurship from the perspective of popular and non-governmental activists. Also, attention to dimensions and angles and undiscovered and different interpretations of activists has not been taken into account.
To conduct this research, the qualitative content analysis method was used to analyze the interview data. The statistical population of the research was the managers of the licensed gyms from the General Department of Sports and Youth of West Azarbaijan province and active in the field of social affairs, who were selected using the purposeful sampling method. According to the interview protocol, each interview lasted for 45 minutes.
 
3. Data
The statistical population of the research consisted of 14 active and licensed NGOs from the General Department of Sports and Youth of West Azarbaijan province, of which 14 were secretaries, 11 were men and 3 were women. The age range of the respondents was from 23 years to 40 years and most of the interviewees had a bachelor’s degree and 3 people had a master’s degree. The analysis of research data about entrepreneurship led to the extraction of 114 primary concepts, 16 sub-categories and 6 main categories.
 
4. Discussion
The main categories extracted from the semantic units are: 
- Social benefit: The concept of social benefit from the perspective of NGOs managers refers to the benefits that the entrepreneur pays attention to in creating a new business. Based on the findings of this research, the category of social benefit includes three subcategories: a) optimal use of one’s own and others’ capacities in creating a business, b) combination of resources, and c) imprinting.
- Creating value: In this research, the primary concepts extracted from the main category of value creation include three sub-categories of competitiveness, risk-taking and connecting people with the entrepreneurial and business environment, each of which alone indicates the value of the concept of entrepreneurship in are the studied community.
- Change the status quo: The managers of Semen had the idea of entrepreneurship that traditional and manual jobs should be resisted and new jobs that are based on information and communication technology should be of interest to future generations. Based on the findings, social change has been classified into two sub-categories of innovation in employment and new jobs based on IT.
- Empowerment: One of the categories that has been considered in the semantic reconstruction of the concept of entrepreneurship is the concept of empowerment. Empowerment is included in the sub-category of identifying one’s own and others’ abilities and leadership ability.
 
5. Conclusion
The current research has been conducted with the aim of extracting the meaning of entrepreneurship from the point of view of the managers of Semen. One of the main categories that Semen managers paid extra attention to was social benefit. One of the criteria that researchers emphasize in the characteristics of entrepreneurs is the ability to combine resources of entrepreneurs (Alinejad, 2018: 287). The research findings of Hoseini et al. (2023) and Abbasi et al. (2023) with the findings obtained from the interview texts also confirm this. In discussing entrepreneurship, Schumpeter believes that entrepreneurs are those who can mobilize and combine social and economic goals for their economic goals by emphasizing the power of combining the resources of entrepreneurs. Therefore, from Schumpeter’s point of view, the entrepreneurial man cannot be reduced to a Paratoian economic man, but in pursuit of his economic goals, he seeks innovation, creativity and the combination of resources (Alinejad, 2018: 263). One of the main categories identified is the discussion of value creation through the formation of entrepreneurship in society. In their interviews, the managers of NGOs clearly stated that the purpose of entrepreneurship is to create social, economic and cultural value in the society. In this regard, Jean-Baptiste C defines entrepreneurship as the equivalent of creating value in society and believes that the main goal of all economic activities is to create value (Alinejad, 2018: 261).