THE ROLE OF SPIRITUAL CAPITAL IN SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NIGERIA

This thesis contributes to the literature on the confluence of spirituality and entrepreneurship, meticulously examining the intricate relationship between spiritual capital and the practice of social entrepreneurship within the Nigerian context.

Social entrepreneurship is a framework or model that promotes using entrepreneurial means to address social challenges and create a positive social impact that benefits the common good. On the other hand, Spiritual capital embodies a transcendental resource, augmenting an individual's ability to cultivate personal, dynamic, and cognitive values that bear substantial socio-economic implications.

The concept of spiritual capital has recently gained attention in social entrepreneurship, with researchers exploring the potential role of spirituality in entrepreneurial cognition, processes, and resourcing. To gain insight into the role of spirituality as a precipitating and underlying source, resource, and force that facilitates social entrepreneurial praxis in Nigeria, this study adopts a qualitative methodology, grounded in constructivist and interpretivist paradigms, utilizing data gathered from semi-structured interviews with social entrepreneurs and their networks within the Nigerian context.

This study is framed in the context of effectuation theory and posits that effectuated spirituality, a form of spiritual capital, is a viable source, resource, and force. By examining the relationship between spiritual capital and social entrepreneurship in Nigeria, a region characterized by significant socioeconomic voids and gaps, this study aims to increase the understanding of how spiritual capital facilitates the social entrepreneurial process and outcomes in the context of such challenges.

Utilising a selection of social entrepreneurs in Nigeria as the primary unit of analysis, this research examines the interplay between spirituality, capital, and social entrepreneurship, especially within institutionally challenging environments. It further conceptualises 'effectuated spirituality' within the framework of spiritual capital. This study concludes that spiritual capital underlies various social entrepreneurial offerings in Nigeria as an adaptive, iterative, and incremental source, resource, and force that enhances social entrepreneurs’ capacity to generate values, cognition, and actions resonating with their intrinsic spiritual values.

The findings of this research carry extensive implications for both policy formulation and practical application, which are elaborated upon in detail within the study.