CSSO Speaker Series
Christian Hampel
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy
Imperial College Business School
When Values Meet Profits: How Impact Entrepreneurs Manage Values Conflict in the Pursuit of Profits
Date: Friday, November 17, 2023
Time: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM
Location: Bronfman building, Room 340
Please contact lijuan.xue2 [at] mcgill.ca (subject: CSSO%20speaker%20series) (Lijuan Xue) for details.
Abstract:
The pursuit of profits is a core element of entrepreneurship. Yet it is unclear how impact entrepreneurs approach the pursuit of profits given that their values center on creating social impact. Understanding this is important because impact entrepreneurs have a valuable role to play in addressing social problems but need to achieve financial sustainability. Drawing on an inductive, qualitative study, we find that impact entrepreneurs perceive profits in one of three distinct ways (tainting, constraining, enabling) based on their values. Each values-based stance has important implications for their efforts and creates different challenges. We also find that entrepreneurs use what we call “moral authenticity work” to address these challenges. Our study contributes to scholarship on the role of entrepreneurship and values in creating social impact.
