E-Magazine
Editorial – Do ethics in enterprise matter?
Dear Readers,
Welcome to this bumper summer edition of the ISBE Enterprising Matters issue on Ethical Enterprise. The subject matter of ethics covers a wide variety of topics which are mainly unified by issues of social responsibility, legality, morality, character, mores and ultimately legitimacy. All the articles featured in this edition discuss ethics in enterprise in a variety of different contexts. Such ethical issues are relevant as we enter into a new “Age of Austerity” in Britain overshadowed by recession and cuts in the public sector. It behooves us to reflect on what this new age may mean for the small business and entrepreneurship sector in Britain. The last age of austerity in Britain was the post war period with rationing and a slow return to pre war normality. This is a serious contemporary issue. Are we really entering into an age of austerity, or is merely overblown political rhetoric or even media hype? It could be argued that market forces have changed and that their demise is but a result of the free market and Schumpeterian Creative Destruction. We are forced to consider questions such as:
• What has ethics got to do with small businesses and entrepreneurs in these troubled times?
• And do ethics in enterprise really matter?
Moreover, we have become accustomed to blaming corporate greed and legerdemain for the ills currently facing us. Consequentially, villainous bankers, CEO’s and politicians are the new public enemies leaving scope for small business owners to adopt the heroic mantle again. This is obviously a polarized view. By coincidence, colleagues of mine at the Robert Gordon University – Dr Robert Halsall and Dr Mary Brown - are currently researching the quasi religious concept of the “Ascetic Narrative” which has a resonance with the genre of entrepreneur stories in that the traits of stoicism and humbleness are emphasised. Thus new age entrepreneurs, bankers and politicians (like saints and clerics of old) are expected to be humble and contrite and to espouse humility in the furtherance of individual enterprise.
This issue’s topic seems to divide opinion across the board and has attracted a number of writers from all areas of the entrepreneurial and small business community eager to give their perspective. The thought provoking debate piece by Nigel Culkin with the title By whose rules should we judge entrepreneurs? contains a wide ranging discussion from the Greek myth of Sisyphus and contemporary corporate chicanery. The commentators Laquita Blockson, Sandy Ogilvie and Louise Worth provide an interesting and spirited response. Richard Blundel invites you to consider attending the Social, Environmental and Ethical Enterprise Track at the 2010 ISBE Conference, where he is track chair. Katherine Bradshaw of The Institute of Business Ethics provides some statistical foundations for the need for ethics in business. Adrian Ashton discusses ethical entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial motivation and credibility. In a change of continent, Ping Zheng looks at the contrasting ethics of entrepreneurship in China, covering such aspects as market socialism and grey areas in a society where capitalist and socialist values collide.
The article by Nada Kakabadse, Linda Lee-Davies and Nicholas Theodorakopoulos covers a wide variety of related topics from entrepreneurship sustainability and corporate social responsibility as related to values in Small and Medium size enterprises. Therese Moylan provides a case study based article on an innovative Irish programme to encourage the development of social entrepreneurship in a higher education context. In his article on social credits, Dave Maher discusses the ethics in the context of lessons to be learned from Carbon and the Clean Development Mechanism. Andy Phippen continues this broad theme in a provocatively entitled article - Tree Hugging or Sound Business Practice? which discusses the ethical dilemmas of businesses trading on the green platform. The final article reflects back on the subject of last issue’s case study BrewDog with an ethical dilemma in relation to recent controversy over a marketing stunt.
We hope you enjoy this edition of Enterprising Matters and invite you to share your thoughts and comments with us and join the fascinating discussions raised by this issue’s topic.
Rob
Dr Robert Smith, Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University
