Entrepreneurship and Business Ethics

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Abstract

In the 21^st century, entrepreneurship has opened up new opportunities for small and large business corporations. The concept has enhanced the way individuals have envisioned business from varied perspectives. New technologies have widened the scope through which business activities can be perceived and operated. Entrepreneurship development has enabled the establishment of a platform through which businesses can solve complex problems affecting them. While such technologies have enhanced the effectiveness of undertaking business, they have improved the development of unethical issues across practices and engagements. Technology has led to unethical accounting, where individuals use modern technology to provide compromised financial statements. In addition, entrepreneurs use social media platforms for marketing their products without considering relevant ethics. Others experience harassment and discrimination, posing a threat to their health and safety. Lastly, privacy is a critical issue for entrepreneurs, making it necessary to maintain high levels of ethics to overcome various unethical issues related to business ventures.

Introduction

In the past decades, the field of entrepreneurship has experienced tremendous changes in how it is perceived and operated. The process has led to the development of advanced research in the field, with scholars examining the various ways in which the opportunity creation sector of the economy undertakes its operations and the legal aspects interrelated to such operations [Islam, 2021]. In the process, researchers have identified much to be learned in the field as creativity has enabled the development of numerous activities that significantly impact society.

Additionally, the diversity of activities associated with entrepreneurship has made the discipline a critical point of study where journals, literature reviews, and case studies have been developed to enhance the understanding of the ethical issues linked to entrepreneurship [Hughes, 2021]. Increasing interest in the field has adapted it in schools as a discipline where people learn the benefits of the process in modern business. Managers and leaders in organization can be praised for their effective skills or criticized for their unethical behavior. As one of the most promising approaches to deal with global economic and future financial system crises, there is the need to apply business ethics concepts to examine the unethical linked to the development of the concept [Ahsan, 2018]. Various ethical issues are linked to entrepreneurship and the mechanisms that business ventures can use to overcome them.

Entrepreneurship and Ethics, A Critical Discussion

Although the studies linking entrepreneurship with business ethics started in the past few years, continuous research the interest has enabled the development of advanced literature that paints a clear picture of various ethical issues experienced in the field [Islam, 2021]. Increased investigation on entrepreneurship made in the past few years has provided insight into the unethical issues that have developed with the increase in entrepreneurial activities [Hughes, 2021]. In examining the available literature connecting entrepreneurship with ethics, issues like entrepreneurial ethics, unethical accounting, health and safety, social media ethics, and privacy have been identified as key unethical practices developed in the modern era.

Entrepreneurial Ethics

In the past few years, extensive literature has been developed on the relationship between business ethics and entrepreneurship. The main focus of most studies is examining the ethical issues in entrepreneurial activities and the use of innovative technologies that have been incorporated into modern businesses [Ahsan, 2018]. Due to this reason, different scholars have focused on the unethical behaviors linked to entrepreneurs that were not there or were minimal in the times of ordinary business. Such studies have focused on key operational aspects like accounting, occupational health, safety, use of social media, and privacy associated with modern technology.

Unethical Accounting

Modern business practices have been linked to the development of unethical bookkeeping practices in the past decade, enabling businesses to use financial statements in an unethical and unprofessional manner. The process involves the cooking of books through the use of unethical accounting processes. Cases of companies using unethical accounting practices like the provision of inaccurate reporting of financial statements have been on the rise in the era of digital businesses. Such processes entail providing erroneous information on aspects like recording expenses incurred by the business [Bailey, 2019]. In addition, creativity in the field of accounting has enabled the exaggeration of revenue obtained by a business to avoid paying taxes. Such practices have made it easy for individuals to execute financial embezzlement and tax evasion schemes, which have significantly impacted modern businesses. Entrepreneurship is related to the development of such practices, which have put individuals in situations where they are capable of facing legal charges for their unethical behaviors [Bailey, 2019]. Identifying such activities has recently led many people to undergo prison sentences, fines, or both.

Occupational Health and Safety Issues

Developing entrepreneurial skills in the modern world has led to the development of small-scale businesses mainly focused on making profits. Entrepreneurs’ main focus in the past few years has been seizing any opportunities that come their way to develop business ventures. The business orientation of most entrepreneurs has made it rare for them to think of the various occupational health issues linked to the various business activities they want to invest in [Goyipnazarov, 2018]. Studies have shown that most entrepreneurs are risk-takers. Therefore, they tend to invest in risky but highly profitable businesses. From such a perspective, it is evident that such kinds of businesses rarely consider occupational health and safety issues when executing their businesses. In addition, business developers rarely have information on occupational health and safety guidelines, making it challenging to set up safety practices within their business [Hauke, Flaspöler, and Reinert, 2018]. The lack of such protective measures is considered unethical since they can expose individuals to harmful work environments in pursuit of profitable ventures. Therefore, individuals should consider staff and workers’ health and safety while pursuing profitable business ventures.

Social Media Ethics

Modern businesses rely heavily on social media to sell their products and services. In this case, entrepreneurs tend to develop strong social media platforms to reach a larger audience for their products in terms of promotion and sales. Due to this reason, businesses tend to apply different mechanisms to ensure that they maximize their efforts and attain more profits [West, 2022]. In the process, some ventures tend to use unethical social medial practices to increase their traffic as their main focus is to maximize the returns from their services. Studies in social media ethics show that the use of social media for business promotion is highly evolving, leading to the development of more rules governing online communication behavior [Pan, Chen, and Yang, 2022]. Such guidelines address how individuals maintain ethical practices when interacting with online communities.

In such cases, it is required that individuals should preserve their dignity, respect other media users and maintain high levels of privacy. In addition to the business presentation of themselves on social media platforms, individual use of social media among organizational employees [Islam, 2021]. It is presumed that businesses should issue guidelines on how organizational staff can use social media while on the business premises [Forestal and Singer, 2020]. It is presumed unethical for individuals to excessively use social media in the organization, as it can significantly affect the business’s productivity.

Technology and Privacy

Technology plays a pivotal role in the management of the operations of modern businesses. The use of technology makes the business’s operations smooth and efficient and breaks the barrier of distance as individuals can execute businesses from anywhere across the world. Due to the ever-changing technologies used in businesses, businesses must keep track of the latest innovations and technological advancements to ensure fair practices in business operations [Martin, Shilton, and Smith, 2019]. The increased use of such technologies has attracted the development of numerous business principles, including accountability, freedom, data protection, privacy, digital rights, and online behavior. In such cases, entrepreneurs must be keen on how they apply technology in their business to ensure that it does not significantly impact its operations [Rahman, 2020]. Entrepreneurs’ innovative nature has made them develop numerous technologies that enable them to execute their operations and enhance the consumer experience effectively. With such technologies, business ventures and individuals continue to experience losses for falling victim to hackers who use personal information stored in organizational systems for malicious reasons.

Such practices have raised questions about the safety of individuals and businesses who use technology to store their critical data. Organizations are forced to develop additional software protection to protect their data from unauthorized individuals [Vivian and Johansson, 2021]. Therefore, the ethics of technology in businesses has significantly influenced businesses to develop mechanisms that make their businesses safe and secure from online hackers or any malicious software that unauthorized individuals could use to breach organizational systems and access personal data.

Special Issue

After critically examining the various ways in which entrepreneurship and ethics are related, it is evident that there is a critical connection between the two disciplines. Entrepreneurship is a new concept in the field of business with a lot to do to ensure that it can deal with the various ethical issues that affect its operations. It is, therefore, effective to incorporate business ethics in entrepreneurship to ensure that the new business ventures maintain high levels of ethics when executing their operations as they are highly vulnerable [Ovsak, Kryvyts’ka, and Savitskaya, 2019]. In other cases, a business may engage in unethical operations without awareness since its main focus is pursuing business opportunities to develop profitable ventures.

Conclusion

Continuous research on the relationship between entrepreneurship and business ethics is critical to provide adequate information on how the two concepts can be merged. New business ventures are exposed to high risks due to their advanced skills and knowledge, making individuals easily execute unethical practices. Research has shown that unethical practices are present in almost all aspects of the business, from accounting to the technologies used to run operations. In addition, aspects like occupational health and safety and data privacy are areas where unethical practices can be executed, creating the need to develop entrepreneurial ethics which would guide entrepreneurial operations. Through such practices, individuals would be able to get the necessary knowledge on ethics to develop businesses that maintain high levels of ethics.

References

Bailey, C. Unethical Practices by Accounting Researchers: Incidence, Intentions, and insights. SSRN Electronic Journal. (2019).

Forestal, J. and Singer, A. Social media ethics and the politics of information. Business Ethics Journal Review, 8(6), pp.31-37. (2020).

Goyipnazarov, S. Assessment of occupational safety measures in small businesses. Theoretical & Applied Science, 62(06), pp.207-212. (2018).

Hauke, A., Flaspöler, E. and Reinert, D. Proactive prevention in occupational safety and health: how to identify tomorrow’s prevention priorities and preventive measures. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 26(1), pp.181-193. (2018).

Islam, G. Business ethics and quantification: Towards an ethics of numbers. Journal of Business Ethics, 176(2), pp.195-211. (2021).

Martin, K., Shilton, K. and Smith, J. Business and the ethical implications of technology: Introduction to the Symposium. Journal of Business Ethics, 160(2), pp.307-317. (2019).

Ovsak, O., Kryvyts’ka, N. and Savitskaya, I. Components of anti-crisis management of entrepreneurial structure. Problems of Systemic Approach in the Economy, (5 (73). (2019).

Pan, X., Chen, X. and Yang, X. Examining the relationship between negative media coverage and corporate social responsibility. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, 31(3), pp.620-633. (2022).

Rahman, F. The relationships among love of money and unethical behaviour. Journal of Contemporary Accounting, 2(3), pp.141-150. (2020).

Vivian, L. and Johansson, O. Technological singularity: Knowledge translation and ethics. Academia Letters. (2021).

Hughes, R. Regulatory entrepreneurship, fair competition, and obeying the law. Journal of Business Ethics. (2021).

Ahsan, M. Entrepreneurship and ethics in the sharing economy: A critical perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 161(1), pp.19-33. (2018).

West, K. Prudent entrepreneurship in theory of moral sentiments. Business Ethics Quarterly, pp.1-24. (2022).

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