Educating for self-interest or -transcendence? An empirical approach to investigating the role of moral competencies in opportunity recognition for sustainable development
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Onno Omta; Lisa Ploum; Vincent Blok; Thomas Lans
- Source
- Business Ethics: A European Review. 28:243-260
- Subject
- Sustainable development
Economics and Econometrics
Transcendence (philosophy)
Process (engineering)
media_common.quotation_subject
05 social sciences
Mixed method design
06 humanities and the arts
Ideation
0603 philosophy, ethics and religion
Social cognitive theory of morality
0502 economics and business
Self-interest
Normative
Engineering ethics
060301 applied ethics
Sociology
Business and International Management
050203 business & management
media_common
- Language
- ISSN
- 0962-8770
Entrepreneurship education with a focus on sustainable development primarily teaches students to develop a profit-driven mentality. As sustainable development is a value-oriented and normative concept, the role of individual ethical norms and values in entrepreneurial processes has been receiving increased attention. Therefore, this study addresses the role of moral competence in the process of idea generation for sustainable development. A mixed method design was developed in which would-be entrepreneurs were subjected to a questionnaire (n = 398) and to real-life decision-making processes in a case assignment (n = 96). The results provide stepping stones for implementing (moral) competencies in entrepreneurship education as a possible avenue to move away from a sole focus on a profit-driven mentality.