Ensuring Social Responsibility in Entreoreneurial Ventures - Essay Example

In fact, lately, the corporate world has been under so much pressure, criticism and scrutiny that being socially responsible, at least on paper, has become vital for the survival of almost all large and medium sized corporations. On the other hand, entrepreneurs who start a new company are less likely to have role models, well-defined principles, historical stories, and other such elements, which could help them, determine the ethical courses of action (Steyaert & Hjorth, 2004). It would be a huge mistake for the entrepreneur to assume that his or her social responsibility only is to maximize his or her own profits to the utmost level as dictated by Milton Freidman, Adam Smith and others.

By focusing on the business, the entrepreneur would be able to produce more and sell more thus stimulating the local economy (Ziegler, 2011). The basic concepts of economics dictate that this will gradually increase the employment opportunities and any excess cash in the hands of the entrepreneur or its employees would be used for investment thus creating an upwards spiral of growth (Steyaert & Hjorth, 2006). . The entire premise of entrepreneurial ventures is because entrepreneurs always find their window of opportunity when they fell that some stakeholder of the existing company is being exploited by the existing businesses (London & Morfopoulos, 2009; Ziegler, 2011).

Therefore, the entrepreneur would decide to fill in gap to provide value and relief to those stakeholders and would make that particular aspect the competitive advantage of the business. The point here is that by having an unethical conduct or exploitation by the entrepreneur of any of the stakeholders of the business, whether its investors, suppliers, customers, distributors or others, the entrepreneur himself or herself will open up an opportunity for other risk takers to step up and fill that gap (Davidsson, 2005).

For example, if an entrepreneur’s production and packaging of the product were harmful to the environment then it would be exploitation of the customers and the society. A bold risk taker who witnesses the same will see this as on opportunity and jump in the business with the logo and mission of being more environmentally responsible and green (Steyaert & Hjorth, 2004). Obviously, he would charge a little premium for the same and take away all the customers, which are concerned with the environment thus putting a serious dent on the business of the first entrepreneur.

Therefore, the point here is that any attempt towards being socially irresponsible or of the exploitation of the stakeholders will appear as an opportunity for other entrepreneurs who would quickly jump in and fill in the gap (Nicholls, 2006). As mentioned earlier that entrepreneurs usually operate under great stress and