Understanding entrepreneurship through the enrichment of institutional theory by ethics

Abstract

This work offers a deeper evaluation of entrepreneurship through institutional theory understanding, in which the technical-economic sphere is not only complemented by a social perspective, but also structured and governed in an ethical manner. Based on a hermeneutic approach, it argues there are primarily three distinct logics or rationalities (technical-economic, psycho-social and ethical anthropological) which are nonetheless compatible and united in one sole agent and in one unique human action. This proposal is an essential complement to institutional theory findings related to entrepreneurship, allowing a sound dialog between technical, social and ethical aspects of entrepreneurship where profit is not excluded, but, rather, considered as a means for achieving human and social ends—thereby radically eliminating the purely instrumental perspective of the human being. The review of the category of entrepreneurship, based on institutional theories, evidences the need to incorporate anthropology and ethics which is explicitly done through an open dialogue that contemplates and integrates all of them.