Department(s)

Business Administration

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2020

Keywords

entrepreneurship, stewardship, rent, profits, property

Abstract

Entrepreneurs should act as stewards of entrepreneurial rent. Entrepreneurial rent is the difference between the ex post value of a venture and its ex ante costs. It is the result of competition among buyers and sellers within the market process rather than the sole efforts of the entrepreneur. As a result, entrepreneurs should allocate entrepreneurial rent for the benefit of other market participants rather than consuming it for themselves. The moral obligation to steward entrepreneurial rent is consistent with traditional bases of property rights and the norm of social welfare maximization, and it applies to corporations and their shareholders, as well as individual entrepreneurs.

Publication Title

Business Ethics Quarterly

ISSN

1052-150X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/beq.2019.51

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