Entrepreneurship and Values

A series of short lectures by entrepreneurs and professors of business, economics, and ethics on the meaning and significance of entrepreneurship. Produced by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.

What Is Entrepreneurship?

In this lecture on “Entrepreneurship as an Essentially Contested Concept,” Professor Alexei Marcoux (Loyola University Chicago) compares and contrasts three major conceptions of entrepreneurship from economists Joseph Schumpeter, Frank Knight, and Israel Kirzner. Time: 17 minutes.

Unleash Your Inner Company

In this “Unleash Your Inner Company” talk, serial entrepreneur John Chisholm (San Francisco) discusses: the values that motivate entrepreneurs; the mutually-reinforcing traits of passion and perseverance; finding unique customers needs; fitting those needs to one’s own uniqueness, strengths, and weakness; and how entrepreneurs are leaders; his own entrepreneurial experiences; similarities and differences between major companies such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM; and the ethics of entrepreneurship in contrast to predation and altruism. Here also is the STAARRS doc [Word] that Chisholm uses as a self-assessment worksheet. Time: 20 minutes.

Management and Entrepreneurship

Professor Terry Noel (Illinois State University) discusses the elements of management — planning, organizing, leading, controlling — including examples from Moses, Chinese warfare, Adam Smith, Eli Whitney, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Frederick Taylor, Michael Taylor and Jay Barney — and management’s connection to entrepreneurship, with discussion of David McLelland, Joseph Schumpeter, William Gartner, several myths of entrepreneurship, and why in the future entrepreneurial thinking will be crucial for everyone in business. Time: 25 minutes.

What Makes Entrepreneurs Tick?

In this short lecture, “The Entrepreneurial Process,” Professor Stephen Hicks (Rockford University) outlines the process of entrepreneurship, from creating a new product or service to eventual success, emphasizing the skills and traits that are key: creative knowledge, ambition, initiative, guts, adjusting to real-world feedback, perseverance, win-win trade, leadership, and the ability to enjoy success. Time: 9 minutes.

Entrepreneurship and Virtue Ethics

In this lecture, Dr. Hicks (Rockford University) connects the success traits of entrepreneurs (e.g., initiative, guts, perseverance, win-win trade) with moral virtues (e.g., integrity, courage, independence, justice). What is practical in business and what is moral are tightly integrated — in contrast to the often-stated “separation thesis” which holds that business success and moral goodness are distinct. Time: 21 minutes.

Entrepreneurship and Liberty

In this lecture, Professor William Kline (University of Illinois, Springfield) discusses the relationship between liberty and entrepreneurship. He explains how laws, culture, and economic regulation can infringe upon the freedom of entrepreneurs and inhibit their abilities to be innovative. He stresses the importance of economic liberty in particular in providing the right environment for entrepreneurship to flourish. Time: 14 minutes.

Entrepreneurship and Public Policy

In this lecture, Professor Robert Salvino (Coastal Carolina University) discusses public policy’s effect on entrepreneurship. He contrasts active public policy methods (e.g., subsidies) and passive ones (e.g., lowering taxes) and hypothesizes that passive approaches to public policy often result in more innovation and entrepreneurship. Time: 15 minutes.

Related:

Ray Stata, “Building a High Performance Organization,” MIT Enterprise Forum.

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