From creating personal value to create social value: The perspective of top Iranian social entrepreneurs using a shared-value creation approach

Social entrepreneurship is the activity of creating social value through innovation. The nature of social entrepreneurship is such that in order to create and develop value, we must identify the personal values of entrepreneurs; Therefore, the purpose was to identify and introduce the evolutionary process of personal values of social entrepreneurs over time that have led to social value creation. This study is exploratory in terms of its developmental-applied purpose and research method. In the qualitative part, the content analysis method and purposeful in-depth interview technique with the top 17 entrepreneurs holding the Social Responsibility Award are used to collect data and the purposeful snowball sampling method, and the quantitative part of the research is done through a t-test. The required data were obtained through a researcher-made questionnaire with 150 managers and entrepreneurs from top companies using the available sampling method. The results show that the value of entrepreneurs is hierarchical, and the creation of shared value is a step between the creation of personal and social value. The results show and the values of successful social entrepreneurs that have led to the growth and development of the country are: The well-being of society, human dignity, national and patriotic sweat, moralism, financial independence, sustainability in relationships with others, group excellence, equality and justice, comfort and security, employee well-being, proving oneself to others and power.