Non-profit entrepreneurial activism: Values, behaviour, and sociotechnical dimensions of social entrepreneurship in the case of Freegle

Abstract

We examine the UK non-profit social enterprise Freegle, a sharing economy off-shoot of the better-known Freecycle, as a case study of a values-based characterisation of sustainable entrepreneurship. Drawing on Schwartz’s quantitative approach to the psychology of values, complemented by interview data, we show how subscription to universalist and benevolent values is significantly stronger among Freegle activists than among the wider UK population. Yet we also show that Freegle activists are stronger, too, on self-directive values than the wider UK population, mirroring the drive for autonomy and self-expression that is commonly associated with commercial entrepreneurs. We set this in the context of perspectives on entrepreneurship that do not assume profit maximisation as a prime motive and we also connect to the sub-literature applying sociotechnical transitions thinking to grassroots innovations.