RT Article
T1 A social mission is not enough: reflecting the normative foundations of social entrepreneurship
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 174
IS 3
SP 487
OP 505
A1 Bruder, Ignas 1988-
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 2021
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1782104232
AB Social entrepreneurship is not just an objective description of a phenomenon; it also carries a positive normative connotation. However, the academic discourse barely reflects social entrepreneurship’s inherent normativity and often grounds it implicitly on the mission of a social enterprise. In this paper, we argue critically that it is insufficient to ground social entrepreneurship’s inherent normativity on a social mission. Instead, we will show how such a mission-centric conception of social entrepreneurship, when put into practice, is prone to enhance rather than diminish societal grievances. In order to give social entrepreneurship an explicit and sound ethical grounding, we draw on integrative economic ethics as a frame of reference. From this perspective, social entrepreneurship necessitates adherence to the discourse-ethically reasoned moral principle in order to live up to its inherent normative validity claim of good entrepreneurship. The consideration of social entrepreneurship practices is crucial to make this approach less vulnerable to ethical critique. The addition of a practice dimension overcomes the mission-centric view of social entrepreneurship and opens up a typology of enterprise forms, thereby enabling a more fine-grained distinction between social enterprises and other forms of organization.
K1 Critique of economism
K1 Discourse ethics
K1 Integrative economic ethics
K1 Normative critique of social entrepreneurship
K1 Normativity
K1 Social Enterprise
K1 Typology
K1 Aufsatz in Zeitschrift
DO 10.1007/s10551-020-04602-5