Understanding Entrepreneurship (and Why That’s Ethically Important)

Here’s an 18-minute video lecture by Prof. Alexei Marcoux on Defining Entrepreneurship.

Why is it so important, from the point of view of business ethics, to define entrepreneurship? Because what you think entrepreneurship is affects what you think entrepreneurs ought morally to do. It also affects what you think is effective or necessary public policy toward entrepreneurship. For example, if you think entrepreneurship consists mainly of Schumpeterian disruptive innovation, then strong intellectual property rights look attractive; but if you think it is mainly a Kirznerian trial-and-error process of opportunity recognition and exploitation, then you’ll be concerned that strong IP rights may discourage the evolutionary, competitive process by which the public benefits most from entrepreneurship.