Towards New Understanding of the Ethical Dimensions of Entrepreneurship

This paper highlights three aspects in order to assist understanding of ethical entrepreneurship. First, it points out that ethical considerations enter at the individual and macro level of society, to impact on the running of business. Second, ethical imperatives are examined within a constrained entrepreneurship framework. Operating ethically presents opportunity albeit within constraint. Third, a transaction cost economization approach is put forward to incorporate the ethical dimension. The terminology of ‘social transaction costs’ (STCs) is used to convey the notion that ‘costs’ are linked to wider societal ethical considerations. Unlike firm specific transaction costs, there is no possibility for economization of STCs through internalisation within the organization. This paper makes the casse for the centrality of ethics in the study of entrepreneurship.