Key Words: Ethics, Ethical challenges, Social Entrepreneurship My PhD research aims to investigate the ethics in social entrepreneurship and to explore answers to the following questions: 1. What are the ethical challenges... [ view full abstract ]
Key Words: Ethics, Ethical challenges, Social Entrepreneurship
My PhD research aims to investigate the ethics in social entrepreneurship and to explore answers to the following questions:
1. What are the ethical challenges in social entrepreneurship?
2. How a social entrepreneur manages to escape these challenges without hampering social mission?
Social Entrepreneurship plays an important role in solving societal and environmental issues. It has attracted attention and ignited unending discussion and debate (Austin et al., 2006; Zahra et al., 2009). Social Entrepreneurs take entrepreneurial risks to create social wealth and work in the area where there is high financial instability and extreme competitions that sometimes forced to make very difficult decision.
While, creating social wealth, they come across with several occasions during mission approach, resource mobilization, and performance management that can provoke or hamper the ethical principle of the social entrepreneur.
The social mission approach makes them to face some distinctive challenges such as competition, scarcity of funds and lack of resources (Zahra et al., 2009). There are examples when social entrepreneur indulge into unethical act for instance a case of SKS microfinance enterprise in India, found to demanding very high interest rates and using force and threat to recover money from the poor (Kabra 2011).
Several literatures mentioned that social entrepreneurs are inspired by noble ideas for solving local social issues through entrepreneurial activity and they hold higher moral and ethical ground in business. Dey and Steyart, (2014) mentioned that ethical virtuousness required to deal with the problems of society through social entrepreneurship.
Dey and Steyart, (2014) raised concerns that social entrepreneurs are more virtuous and ethical than ordinary people or that they are ethical all the time. He further claims that such kind of assumptions are misleading. In a business environment, ethical behavior plays an important role. It is such a sensitive matter that it can affect individual and organization in positive or in negative way.
Zahra et al. (2009) also mentioned that everyday life of social entrepreneurs is replete with ethical dilemmas and therefore pre-existence of ethics in social entrepreneurship is contradictory but might instead ethics in social entrepreneurship can be developed and nurture through time. He also mentioned that social entrepreneur faces unique ethical challenges based on their motivation to do social entrepreneurship, the resources required to achieve their mission, the control mechanisms that can regulate their behaviors. Although social entrepreneurs are driven by an ethical obligation and noble desire to develop the society, egoism can make them to follow unethical practices Zahra et al. (2009).
A case study approach in qualitative method will be used to conduct the research. Primary Data collection will be used through interview from social entrepreneurs, or experts from the field. Research study will involve 15 to 20 participants from Portugal. Selection of country or participants is based on accessibility and availability that can be altered according to suitability and need.
Investigation of ethics in social entrepreneurship is new and it required significant attention. This research will contribute to the knowledge of academia and practitioner globally.
Reference:
Austin, J., Stevenson, & Wei-Skillern, J., 2006. Social and commercial entrepreneurship: same, different, or both? Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Vol. 30 (1), pp.1–22
Dey, P., & Steyaert, C. Rethinking the Space of Ethics in Social Entrepreneurship: Power, Subjectivity, and Practices of Freedom. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-15.
Kabra, P. (2011). Indian Microfinance Crisis.
Zahra, S. A.; Gedajlovic b. E.; Neubaum, D. O. and Shulman, J. M. (2009), A typology of social entrepreneurs: Motives, search processes and ethical challenges, Journal of Business Venturing Vol.24
