More and more graduates are turning to entrepreneurship as a way of making a living - but they are also using it to make the world a better place.

That is the view of Bryan Toney, director of the Center of Entrepreneurship at ASU's Walker College of Business, the Citizen-Times reported.

He added that this socially-minded approach can sometimes involve starting an environmentally-focused enterprise, such as a business that recycles materials like plastic bottles.

However, other social benefits come from the new jobs that small businesses create, he added.

Over the last decade, around 26% of the center's graduates have started their own company, while another 33% in intend to do so. On average, these new enterprises employ four people each.

"If you have 100 people launching businesses that employ four people, it's the size of a manufacturing plant. That's a real driver in our economy," he said.

According to the Small Business Administration, between 60% and 80% of all new jobs generated in the US over the last ten years were created by small firms.

In 2007, companies employing fewer than 500 people accounted for 99.9% of the United States' 27.2 million businesses.