CFP: Ethics and Entrepreneurship

[entrepreneurship-phd at lists.uni-essen.de]

Call for Papers for a conference on "Ethics and Entrepreneurship"
to be held at the

Carlson School
University of Minnesota
April 27-29, 2006
Deadline: February 1, 2006

Resulting is a special issue of the Journal of Business Venturing
Conference Organizers / Guest Editors: Norman Bowie, University of
Minnesota Harry Sapienza, University of Minnesota Jared Harris,
University of Minnesota Conference to Include Papers From: George
Brenkert, Georgetown University Saras Sarasvathy, University of Virginia
S. Venkatraman, University of Virginia Shaker Zahra, University of
Minnesota

What is the relationship between business ethics and entrepreneurship?
How might insights from one discipline enrich the theoretical frameworks
of the other? Does the new venture setting contain specific and unique
ethical challenges? If so, how might they be effectively understood and
addressed? These questions arise from a small, but growing, literature
that lies at the intersection of entrepreneurship research and business
ethics scholarship. Although this indicates that there is an embryonic
interest in ethics and entrepreneurship, there has been only one
significant, concerted effort (Ruffin Lectures, 2002) to stimulate
research and facilitate analysis in this area. Accordingly, the goals of
this conference are to (a) stimulate scholarly interest in issues around
ethics and entrepreneurship and promote new lines of research from the
relevant literatures, (b) build a conceptual foundation for studying
business ethics within entrepreneurial settings that will facilitate
analysis and empirical inquiry of the problem, and (c) develop
frameworks and research-based knowledge that will ultimately help and
inform entrepreneurs in their efforts to conduct ethical business. To
achieve these objectives, the organizers will seek manuscripts that draw
on theoretical perspectives not only from the fields of entrepreneurship
and business ethics, but also from organizational behavior and theory,
strategic management, psychology, sociology, economics, and other
relevant disciplines. Theories may be focused on the individual
entrepreneur, the new venture, or the broader impact of entrepreneurship
on society. The broad domain of the forum is intended to help to build
and extend the body of theory in ethics and entrepreneurship.

Examples of several broad categories of relevant questions include, but
are not limited to, the following:

Individual Entrepreneurial Ethics
* How do the personal traits typically associated with entrepreneurs
impact their ethical decision-making processes?
* What specific ethical dilemmas arise for managers within the new
venture environment?
* How might stakeholder theory be specifically applied to founders,
entrepreneurial teams, and others with a stake in the new venture?

Organizational Entrepreneurial Ethics
* How can positive ethical cultures or climates be formed in new
ventures?
* How might ethical climate or culture in a new venture achieve
resilience over time?
* How do entrepreneurial stakeholders qualitatively differ in character
from the traditionally considered large-corporation stakeholders?
* What are the ethical considerations relevant to corporate venturing?

Social Entrepreneurship
* What are the differences between business and social entrepreneurs?
* Are founders with past business entrepreneurship experience more
likely to be successful at social ventures?
* What lessons can mainstream entrepreneurial practice learn from the
social venturing arena?

Entrepreneurship, Business, and Society
* What are the requisite ethical considerations for entrepreneurial
opportunity exploitation?
* What are entrepreneurs' special or particular societal obligations, as
distinct from managers in mature firms?
* How are these obligations relevant in corporate venturing situations,
as opposed to stand-alone startups?
* What are the moral implications of Austrian/Schumpeterian creative
destruction, and when should they be considered?

Submissions To be considered for inclusion in the conference program,
and for eventual publication in a special issue of the Journal of
Business Venturing, manuscripts must be received by February 1, 2006.
There are two ways to submit the manuscript. The strongly preferred way
is by e-mail attachment. To do so, simply attach a copy of the Microsoft
Word or Adobe Acrobat file to an email and send it to
ethicsconf at csom.umn.edu. Alternatively, you may submit hard copy of your
manuscript to: Ethics and Entrepreneurship Conference, 3-365 Carlson
School of Management, University of Minnesota, 321 19th Avenue South,
Minneapolis, MN 55455.