IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i14p11099-d1195390.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Navigating the Complexity of Entrepreneurial Ethics: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda

Author

Listed:
  • Mohammad Daradkeh

    (College of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Dubai, Dubai 14143, United Arab Emirates
    Faculty of Information Technology and Computer Science, Yarmouk University, Irbid 21163, Jordan)

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is a multifaceted and constantly evolving process that is often marked by various challenges, such as environmental uncertainty, resource constraints, intense competition, and ambiguous roles. These complexities can give rise to ethical dilemmas, including conflicts of interest and unethical behavior, which can further be compounded by the incorporation of digital technology in entrepreneurship. Despite the growing recognition of the significance of entrepreneurial ethics, research in this area remains limited and fragmented. Therefore, this study aims to navigate the complexity of entrepreneurial ethics and address knowledge gaps by conducting a systematic review of the extant literature in the field of entrepreneurship, ethics, and management between 2003 and 2023 using the PRISMA protocol. The review focuses on three key aspects: (1) factors that shape entrepreneurial ethical perception and climate, (2) factors that influence entrepreneurial ethical decision making and behavior, and (3) the consequences of entrepreneurial ethical decisions and behavior. This study proposes future research avenues that can deepen our understanding of the interplay between digital technology and entrepreneurial ethics, stakeholder influence on ethical decision making, and the relationship between ethical leadership and entrepreneurial performance. Ultimately, the findings from this study provide a comprehensive framework for examining and comprehending the critical domain of entrepreneurial ethics, which can effectively address ethical dilemmas and establish socially conscious ventures that positively impact both the economy and society.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammad Daradkeh, 2023. "Navigating the Complexity of Entrepreneurial Ethics: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-30, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:14:p:11099-:d:1195390
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11099/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/14/11099/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paramita, Widya & Indarti, Nurul & Virgosita, Risa & Herani, Rina & Sutikno, Bayu, 2022. "Let ethics lead your way: The role of moral identity and moral intensity in promoting social entrepreneurial intention," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    2. Gita Surie & Allan Ashley, 2008. "Integrating Pragmatism and Ethics in Entrepreneurial Leadership for Sustainable Value Creation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 235-246, August.
    3. Nicholas Dew & Saras Sarasvathy, 2007. "Innovations, Stakeholders & Entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 74(3), pages 267-283, September.
    4. Sarah Kimakwa & Jorge A. Gonzalez & Hale Kaynak, 2023. "Social Entrepreneur Servant Leadership and Social Venture Performance: How are They Related?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 95-118, January.
    5. Brett Smith & Terri Feldman Barr & Saulo Dubard Barbosa & Jill Kickul, 2008. "Social entrepreneurship : A grounded learning approach to social value creation," Post-Print hal-02311842, HAL.
    6. Nylund, Petra A. & Ferràs-Hernández, Xavier & Pareras, Luis & Brem, Alexander, 2022. "The emergence of entrepreneurial ecosystems based on enabling technologies: Evidence from synthetic biology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 728-735.
    7. Mária Srebalová & František Vojtech, 2021. "SME Development in the Visegrad Area," Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics, in: Mehmet Huseyin Bilgin & Hakan Danis & Ender Demir (ed.), Eurasian Business and Economics Perspectives, pages 269-281, Springer.
    8. Hota, Pradeep Kumar & Bhatt, Babita & Qureshi, Israr, 2023. "Institutional work to navigate ethical dilemmas: Evidence from a social enterprise," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(1).
    9. Jean S. Clarke & Robin Holt, 2010. "Reflective Judgement : Understanding Entrepreneurship as Ethical Practice," Post-Print hal-02312343, HAL.
    10. Brett R. Smith & Terri Feldman Barr & Saulo D. Barbosa & Jill R. Kickul, 2008. "Social Entrepreneurship: A Grounded Learning Approach To Social Value Creation," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(04), pages 339-362.
    11. Jean Clarke & Robin Holt, 2010. "Reflective Judgement: Understanding Entrepreneurship as Ethical Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 317-331, July.
    12. Mike Bull & Rory Ridley-Duff, 2019. "Towards an Appreciation of Ethics in Social Enterprise Business Models," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 619-634, October.
    13. Muel Kaptein, 2019. "The Moral Entrepreneur: A New Component of Ethical Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 1135-1150, June.
    14. Laura Dunham & John McVea & R. Edward Freeman, 2008. "Entrepreneurial wisdom: incorporating the ethical and strategic dimensions of entrepreneurial decision-making," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 6(1), pages 8-19.
    15. Guangping Xu & Guangyuan Hou & Jinshan Zhang, 2022. "Digital Sustainable Entrepreneurship: A Digital Capability Perspective through Digital Innovation Orientation for Social and Environmental Value Creation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-24, September.
    16. Ted Fuller & Yumiao Tian, 2006. "Social and Symbolic Capital and Responsible Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Investigation of SME Narratives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 287-304, September.
    17. Pascal Dey & Chris Steyaert, 2016. "Rethinking the Space of Ethics in Social Entrepreneurship: Power, Subjectivity, and Practices of Freedom," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(4), pages 627-641, February.
    18. Pradeep Kumar Hota, 2023. "Tracing the Intellectual Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship Research: Past Advances, Current Trends, and Future Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 637-659, January.
    19. Tancredi Pascucci & Giuseppina Maria Cardella & Brizeida Hernàndez-Sànchez & Jose Carlos Sànchez-Garcìa, 2022. "Environmental Sensitivity to Form a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-17, August.
    20. Hans Rawhouser & Michael Cummings & Scott L. Newbert, 2019. "Social Impact Measurement: Current Approaches and Future Directions for Social Entrepreneurship Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 82-115, January.
    21. John James Cater & Lorna A. Collins & Brent D. Beal, 2017. "Ethics, Faith, and Profit: Exploring the Motives of the U.S. Fair Trade Social Entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 185-201, November.
    22. Melissa Baucus & William Norton & David Baucus & Sherrie Human, 2008. "Fostering Creativity and Innovation without Encouraging Unethical Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 97-115, August.
    23. Alenka Slavec Gomezel & Rok Stritar, 2023. "Does it pay to be an ethical leader in entrepreneurship? An investigation of the relationships between entrepreneurs’ regulatory focus, ethical leadership, and small firm growth," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 155-173, January.
    24. Susan Harmeling & Saras Sarasvathy & R. Freeman, 2009. "Related Debates in Ethics and Entrepreneurship: Values, Opportunities, and Contingency," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(3), pages 341-365, February.
    25. Sean R. Valentine & Sheila K. Hanson & Gary M. Fleischman, 2019. "The Presence of Ethics Codes and Employees’ Internal Locus of Control, Social Aversion/Malevolence, and Ethical Judgment of Incivility: A Study of Smaller Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 657-674, December.
    26. Brenkert, George G., 2009. "Innovation, rule breaking and the ethics of entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 448-464, September.
    27. Charles Harvey & Jillian Gordon & Mairi Maclean, 2021. "The Ethics of Entrepreneurial Philanthropy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 33-49, June.
    28. Alistair R. Anderson & Robert Smith, 2007. "The moral space in entrepreneurship: an exploration of ethical imperatives and the moral legitimacy of being enterprising," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 479-497.
    29. Mohammad Daradkeh, 2023. "Exploring the Curvilinear Relationship between Academic-Industry Collaboration Environment and Innovation Performance: A Multilevel Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-20, May.
    30. Abigail Padi & Wilberforce Owusu Ansah & Mahmoud Abdulai Mahmoud, 2022. "Corporate entrepreneurship and employees’ competencies: Do employees’ perceived feasibility and desirability matter?," Cogent Business & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 2102129-210, December.
    31. Janet Marta & Anusorn Singhapakdi & Kenneth Kraft, 2008. "Personal Characteristics Underlying Ethical Decisions in Marketing Situations: A Survey of Small Business Managers," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(4), pages 589-606, October.
    32. Xueling Li & Yujie Long & Meixi Fan & Yong Chen, 2022. "Drilling down artificial intelligence in entrepreneurial management: A bibliometric perspective," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 379-396, May.
    33. Mujtaba Ahsan, 2020. "Entrepreneurship and Ethics in the Sharing Economy: A Critical Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 19-33, January.
    34. Babita Bhatt, 2022. "Ethical Complexity of Social Change: Negotiated Actions of a Social Enterprise," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(4), pages 743-762, May.
    35. Kumar, Satish & Sahoo, Saumyaranjan & Lim, Weng Marc & Dana, Léo-Paul, 2022. "Religion as a social shaping force in entrepreneurship and business: Insights from a technology-empowered systematic literature review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    36. Dinah Payne & Brenda Joyner, 2006. "Successful U.S. Entrepreneurs: Identifying Ethical Decision-making and Social Responsibility Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 203-217, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Le Vu Lan Oanh & Patrizia Tettamanzi & Dinh Tien Minh & Maurizio Comoli & Kamel Mouloudj & Michael Murgolo & Mai Dang Thu Hien, 2024. "How Ethical Behavior Is Considered in Different Contexts: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research Trends," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-38, August.
    2. Aleksy Kwilinski, 2024. "Mapping Global Research on Green Energy and Green Investment: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-24, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Harris, Jared D. & Sapienza, Harry J. & Bowie, Norman E., 2009. "Ethics and entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 407-418, September.
    2. Karanda, Crispen & Toledano, Nuria, 2018. "The promotion of ethical entrepreneurship in the Third World: Exploring realities and complexities from an embedded perspective," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 881-890.
    3. Babita Bhatt, 2022. "Ethical Complexity of Social Change: Negotiated Actions of a Social Enterprise," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(4), pages 743-762, May.
    4. Barbara Orser & Catherine Elliott & Joanne Leck, 2013. "Entrepreneurial Feminists: Perspectives About Opportunity Recognition and Governance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 241-257, June.
    5. Vallaster, Christine & Kraus, Sascha & Merigó Lindahl, José M. & Nielsen, Annika, 2019. "Ethics and entrepreneurship: A bibliometric study and literature review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 226-237.
    6. Gustav Hägg & Vera Haataja & Agnieszka Kurczewska & Alexander McKelvie, 2024. "Entrepreneurial Responsibility: A Conceptual Framework to Understand Ethical Dualism Throughout the Entrepreneurial Process," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 48(4), pages 1110-1126, July.
    7. Dong-Hong Zhu & Ya-Ping Chang, 2013. "Negative Publicity Effect of the Business Founder’s Unethical Behavior on Corporate Image: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(1), pages 111-121, September.
    8. Pradeep Kumar Hota, 2023. "Tracing the Intellectual Evolution of Social Entrepreneurship Research: Past Advances, Current Trends, and Future Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 637-659, January.
    9. Hota, Pradeep Kumar & Bhatt, Babita & Qureshi, Israr, 2023. "Institutional work to navigate ethical dilemmas: Evidence from a social enterprise," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(1).
    10. González-Rodríguez, M. Rosario & Díaz-Fernández, M. Carmen & Simonetti, Biagio, 2015. "The social, economic and environmental dimensions of corporate social responsibility: The role played by consumers and potential entrepreneurs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 836-848.
    11. Tuija Mainela & Vesa Puhakka & Per Servais, 2015. "Boundary crossing for international opportunities," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 173-185, September.
    12. Rodgers, Waymond & Al Shammakhi, Badriya N. & Jeaneth, Johansson & Wincent, Joakim & Adams, Kweku, 2020. "DIY Entrepreneurship: a decision-pathway framework for ethical thought structures," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    13. Alenka Slavec Gomezel & Rok Stritar, 2023. "Does it pay to be an ethical leader in entrepreneurship? An investigation of the relationships between entrepreneurs’ regulatory focus, ethical leadership, and small firm growth," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 155-173, January.
    14. Helen M. Haugh & Alka Talwar, 2016. "Linking Social Entrepreneurship and Social Change: The Mediating Role of Empowerment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(4), pages 643-658, February.
    15. Ruben Burga & Davar Rezania, 2016. "Stakeholder theory in social entrepreneurship: a descriptive case study," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Aidin Salamzadeh & Zahra Arasti & Ghanbar Mohamadi Elyasi, 2017. "Creation of ICT-Based Social Start-Ups in Iran: A Multiple Case Study," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 25(01), pages 97-122, March.
    17. Vasilis Theoharakis & Seraphim Voliotis & Jeffrey M. Pollack, 2021. "Going Down the Slippery Slope of Legitimacy Lies in Early-Stage Ventures: The Role of Moral Disengagement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(4), pages 673-690, September.
    18. Ángel Rodríguez-López & Jaime E. Souto, 2020. "Empowering entrepreneurial capacity: training, innovation and business ethics," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(1), pages 23-43, March.
    19. Christian Garmann Johnsen, 2021. "Sustainability Beyond Instrumentality: Towards an Immanent Ethics of Organizational Environmentalism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 1-14, August.
    20. André Laplume & Kent Walker & Zhou Zhang & Xin Yu, 2021. "Incumbent Stakeholder Management Performance and New Entry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 629-644, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:14:p:11099-:d:1195390. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.