Abstract
This chapter is concerned with three intersections between ethics and entrepreneurship. The first intersection is related to entrepreneurs’ specific responsibility which is increasingly influencing writings about entrepreneurship. This intersection is about ethical value creation and the values of the entrepreneurs. Important in this intersection is also the role of the entrepreneur vis-à-vis the capitalist. The distinction between the two acquires an ethical importance particularly with regard to how entrepreneurship could be seen as an activity that is perceived as being distinct from capitalist activity. The second and third intersections refer to the application of entrepreneurship to practices that aim to create innovation and social change at the personal level. The importance of these intersections lies in the type of change that the entrepreneurial process brings about consisting either in personal innovation or personal emancipation, which are processes of change captured in the notion of self-entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship has become a critical field for ethics. Through entrepreneurship it is now possible to have ethics focus on what people concretely do, and thus operate as a mentality rather than a distant theory.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Utilitarianism, also known as consequentialism, offers no help here. Utilitarianism is an ethical outlook that refers to making rational choices based on ideas of general welfare. The speculative element inherent in utilitarianism concerns what changes result in greater welfare. It sets in motion preferences of wants without, however, paying attention to the way preferences are going to be satisfied within set states of affairs. Because of its material priorities, utilitarianism has little support. Bernard Williams (1985) once spoke of the “vulgarity of utilitarianism” (p. 8).
References
Anderson, P. 2004. Introduction. In Next generation business handbook: New strategies from tomorrow’s thought leaders, ed. S. Chowdhury, 651–654. Hoboken: Wiley.
Baumol, W.J. 1986. Entrepreneurship and a century of growth. Journal of Business Venturing 1(2): 141–145.
Betta, M., R. Jones, and J. Latham. 2010. Entrepreneurship and the innovative self: A Schumpeterian reflection. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research 16: 229–244.
Bornstein, D. 2007. How to change the world: Social entrepreneurs and the power of ideas. New York: Oxford University Press.
Brenkert, G.G. 2009. Innovation, rule breaking and the ethics of entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing 24: 448–464.
Brynjolfsson, E., and A. McAfee. 2014. The second machine age: Work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies. New York: Norton & Company.
Calás, M.B., L. Smircich, and K.A. Bourne. 2009. Extending the boundaries: Reframing “entrepreneurship as social change” through feminist perspectives. Academy of Management Review 34: 552–569.
Chesbrough, H.W. 2003. Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Christensen, C.M. 1997. The innovator’s dilemma: When new technologies cause great firms to fail. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Clarke, J., and R. Holt. 2010. Reflective judgment: Understanding entrepreneurship as ethical practice. Journal of Business Ethics 94: 317–331.
Clarke, R., and J. Ram. 1997. Universal values, behavioral ethics and entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Ethics 16: 561–572.
Cressy, R., D. Cumming, and C.A. Mallin. 2010. Entrepreneurship, governance and ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 95: 117–120.
Donzelot, J. 2008. Michel Foucault and liberal intelligence. Economy and Society 37(1): 115–134.
Dunham, L.C. 2010. From rational to wise action: Recasting our theories of entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Ethics 92: 513–530.
Etzioni, A. 1987. Entrepreneurship, adaptation and legitimation. A macro-behavioral perspective. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 8: 175–189.
Fayolle, A., and H. Matlay. 2012. Handbook of research in social entrepreneurship. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Frankfurt, H.G. 1988. The importance of what we care about: Philosophical essays. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gordon, C. 1991. Governmental rationality: An introduction. In The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality, ed. G. Burchell, C. Gordon, and P. Miller, 87–104. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Goss, D., R. Jones, M. Betta, and J. Latham. 2011. Power as practice: A micro-sociological analysis of the dynamics of emancipatory entrepreneurship. Organization Studies 32: 211–229.
Hannafey, F.T. 2003. Entrepreneurship and ethics: A literature review. Journal of Business Ethics 46: 99–110.
Harris, J.D., H.J. Sapienza, and N.E. Bowie. 2011. Ethics and entrepreneurship. Journal of Ethics and Entrepreneurship 1: 7–27.
Hougaz, L. 2015. Entrepreneurs in family business dynasties. Stories of Italian-Australian family businesses over 100 Years. Dordrecht: Springer.
Jones, R., J. Latham, and M. Betta. 2008. The narrative construction of the social entrepreneurial identity. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research 14: 330–345.
Kontos, M. 2004. Biographical analysis of quality of life processes in migration. In Challenges for the quality of life in contemporary societies, ed. W. Glatzer, S. von Below, and M. Stoffregen, 1–12. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Kupferberg, F. 1998. Humanistic entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial career commitment. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development 10: 171–187.
Kupferberg, F. 2003. The established and the newcomers: What makes immigrant and women entrepreneurs so special? International Review of Sociology–Revue International de Sociologie 13: 89–104.
Miles, P., L.S. Muniall, and J.G. Covin. 2002. The constant gardener revisited: The effect of social blackmail on the marketing concept, innovation and entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Ethics 41: 287–295.
Miles, P., L.S. Muniall, and J.G. Covin. 2004. Innovation, ethics, and entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Ethics 54: 97–101.
Naughton, M.J., and J.R. Cornwall. 2006. The virtues of courage in entrepreneurship: Engaging the Catholic social tradition and the life-cycle of the business. Business Ethics Quarterly 16(1): 69–93.
Nightingale, P. 2015. Schumpeter’s technological roots? Harnack and the origins of creative destruction. Journal of Evolutionary Economics 25: 69–75.
Penrose, E.T. 1980. The theory of the growth of the firm. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Pompe, V. 2013. Moral entrepreneurship: Resources based ethics. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 26: 313–332.
Powell, S.S. 1990. The entrepreneur as the mainspring of economic growth. Stanford: Stanford University, The Hoover Institution.
Rindova, V., D. Barry, and D.J. Ketchen. 2009. Entrepreneuring as emancipation. Academy of Management Review 34: 477–491.
Rothwell, K. 1988. Hamlet’s ‘glass of fashion’: Power, self, and the reformation. In Technologies of the self: A seminar with Michel Foucault, ed. L.H. Martin, H. Gutman, and P.H. Hutton, 80–98. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press.
Schumpeter, J.A. 1934. The theory of economic development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schumpeter, J.A. 2002. New translations: Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung. American Journal of Economics and Sociology 61: 405–437.
Schumpeter, J.A. [1949] 2004. Economic theory and entrepreneurial history. In Essays on entrepreneurs, innovations, business cycles, and the evolution of capitalism, by J. A. Schumpeter, ed. R.V. Clemence (7th ed.), 254–272. New Brunswick: Transaction.
Suddaby, R. 2014. Why theory? Academy of Management Review 39: 407–411.
Suddaby, R., G.D. Bruton, and S.X. Si. 2015. Entrepreneurship through a qualitative lens: Insights on the construction and/or discovery of entrepreneurial opportunity. Journal of Business Venturing 30: 1–10.
Vranceanu, R. 2014. Corporate profit, entrepreneurship theory and business ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review 23: 50–68.
Wempe, J. 2005. Ethical entrepreneurship and fair trade. Journal of Business Ethics 60: 211–220.
Williams, B. 1985. Ethics and the limits of philosophy. London: Fontana Press/Collins.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Betta, M. (2016). Entrepreneurial Ethics. In: Ethicmentality - Ethics in Capitalist Economy, Business, and Society. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 45. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7590-8_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7590-8_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-7588-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-7590-8
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)