Ethics in entrepreneurship: Moving beyond binaries

Abstract

In this annual review article, we revisit the relationship between ethics and entrepreneurship, one that has hitherto been framed in the field using paired conceptual opposites: normative versus descriptive, intrinsic versus extrinsic or retrospective versus prospective approaches. Using the categorical clarity offered by these binary pairings, studies have explored how entrepreneurs act for the good or ought to act; whether new ventures possess inherent worth, or if and how they contribute to society; and how to evaluate ventures normatively, whether in hindsight or by envisioning desirable futures. While acknowledging these insights, we advocate a critical engagement with these binaries. To this end, we inquire into how studies have twisted and threaded these binaries into one another, complicating the patterns and bringing the binaries into uneasy but also productive proximity with one another. We follow this with a discussion section where, in light of the review, we propose three vectors along which future studies of ethics in entrepreneurial life might move: from moral certainties to ethical otherness; from a third-person distance to a second-person scrutiny; and from the generalising of theory-building towards studies of everyday practices. In making movements along these vectors, we argue, studies would develop an awareness that ventures qua ventures are inherently ethical, insofar as the dilemmas, challenges and opportunities associated with ‘doing good’ and ‘doing the right thing’ are immanent to their flourishing and that of others.

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