The Added Value of Virtue

Abstract

We have recently seen a growing concern for business ethics and the central role key individuals play in the formative years of a business. Research has shown that the embedding of personal values are one of the more critical and lasting contributions that a founder can make in an organisation. Research also indicates that in the modern business context, there are few accepted guidelines for moral evaluations in practical business settings. The purpose of this theoretical paper is to explore some of the moral and social elements inherent in entrepreneurship, using the basic tenets espoused by Aristotle. By revisiting the theory of virtue, we find a powerful framework for establishing organisational purpose, habitual excellence and the optimal balance for sustaining these ventures and the people on whom they depend. For creative business practices, such as entrepreneurship and marketing, a virtue perspective offers a particularly appropriate lens.

Piety and profit; the moral embeddedness of an enterprising community

“…Conceptually, we can construe these practices as virtue ethics (Crockett & Anderson, 2004). Indeed, in some societies, in contrast to neoliberal ethics of individual autonomy, other ethics, such as the ethics of community and divinity are much more prominent (Haidt, Koller, & Dias, 1993).…”