Unit 1: Ethics in Entrepreneurship

1a. Apply business ethics concepts to an entrepreneurial venture

  • What CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) do you think entrepreneurs should have?
  • What is the difference between social entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship?
  • What guides an entrepreneur's ethical values?

Stakeholders in a business include all people and organizations that have a vested interest in a business. Shareholders, however, are a small group that owns a business. Ethics refers to the standards of behavior one wants to uphold. Therefore, business ethics guides the conduct by which entrepreneurs abide by the law and respect the rights of their stakeholders. Part of ethics is acting with integrity; that is, we adhere strongly to a system of ethical values. Companies can implement a six-step decision-making process and have a code of ethics to ensure all are on the same page about expectations surrounding ethics.

It is important to ensure entrepreneurs adhere to ethics, and laws can often help guide the entrepreneur to the right thing to do. For example, numerous intellectual property laws legally protect someone's idea. There are also laws, such as a variety of patents one can obtain to protect brand-new product ideas or inventions. In addition, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets are meant to protect company names, logos, designs, and proprietary information, processes, or other internal knowledge.

A conflict of interest occurs when an individual (or company) has interests in multiple areas (financial investments, work obligations, personal relationships), and the interests may conflict with each other. 

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to businesses' consideration in a broader context as a member of society with certain implicit social obligations. Social entrepreneurship refers to venture launches by entrepreneurs who are, first and foremost, advocates for a social cause. Some entrepreneurs choose to implement sustainability practices in their businesses. Entrepreneurs can build CSR and ethics-based behaviors in their businesses by focusing on excellence, fairness, and trust. 

To review, see:


1b. Compare and contrast CSR efforts as an entrepreneur

  • How do you see values and CSR efforts as complementary to one another?
  • What can companies do in terms of culture to ensure ethics and fairness?
  • What are the different viewpoints on ethics and CSR efforts?

Terminal values refers to desired goals, objectives or end states that a person wants to pursue. Instrumental values are the means of behavior used to obtain those goals. For example, a terminal value could be friendships, while an instrumental value would be loving and honest. 

There are a few different theories on ethical choices, which include utilitarianism, universalism, justice, and rights approaches. Virtue ethics is based on character traits, specifically the type of person we want to be, as opposed to the actions we should take.

The role of culture alignment in organizations is important to ethics and CSR efforts. This can be looked at as leadership, environment, and resources, which are tied together as part of the corporate culture, such as the vision and strategy. 

To review, see:


1c. Distinguish diversity, inclusion, and engagement concepts as they relate to an ethical entrepreneur

  • What is diversity, and why should it matter to an entrepreneur?
  • What are the different types of diversity?
  • How can the inclusion and engagement of a diverse workforce benefit an organization?

There are three main types of diversity, including surface level diversity, which includes characteristics of an individual that are visible, such as age or race. Deep-level diversity includes characteristics that are non-observable, such as values and beliefs. Hidden diversity is deep level, but may be concealed or revealed at the discretion of individuals who possess them, such as sexual orientation. Understanding diversity can help an entrepreneur ensure they hire diverse individuals with a variety of skills and abilities, which makes the organization stronger.

Sexual harassment can come in two forms: quid pro quo and a hostile work environment. Anyone can experience sexual harassment in the workplace. There are many advantages to having a workforce that is diverse in gender and gender identity, race, national origin, and age. The advantages include broader perspectives in terms of marketing and solving complex organizational issues. There are several theories that attempt to describe diversity in the workplace, which shows that while a diverse workforce has some challenges, ultimately, it has many benefits, including meeting legal requirements depending on the country the business is located within. As an entrepreneur, ensuring inclusion and engagement can help the business grow through a variety of new ideas and approaches to problem-solving.

To review, see:


Unit 1 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

  • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
  • deep level diversity
  • ethics
  • hidden diversity
  • instrumental values
  • shareholder
  • social entrepreneurship
  • stakeholder
  • surface level diversity
  • terminal values
Callback before_footer in local_aigrade component should be migrated to new hook callback for core\hook\output\before_footer_html_generation
  • line 7225 of /lib/moodlelib.php: call to debugging()
  • line 7292 of /lib/moodlelib.php: call to {closure}()
  • line 71 of /lib/classes/hook/output/before_footer_html_generation.php: call to get_plugins_with_function()
  • line 987 of /lib/classes/output/core_renderer.php: call to core\hook\output\before_footer_html_generation->process_legacy_callbacks()
  • line 154 of /mod/book/view.php: call to core\output\core_renderer->footer()