Emprendedores Responsables

Socially responsible entrepreneurs: What do they do to create and build their companies?
David Y. Choi[pic], a, [pic]and Edmund R. Graya, [pic]
aCollege of Business Administration, Loyola Marymount University, One LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045-2659, U.S.A.
Available online 10 June 2008.
Abstract
This paper examines 30 entrepreneurs who created profitable companies, and who were alsoexemplary in their efforts towards social responsibility. It examines their management practices to understand how these socially responsible entrepreneurs created and built their companies. The study reveals that these socially responsible entrepreneurs founded their companies, at least in part, to achieve idealistic objectives, and pursued financial and non-financial objectives simultaneously. Mostavoided financing from institutional sources, hired employees for their shared values, and shrewdly leveraged their social identities to differentiate themselves in the marketplace. Many of these entrepreneurs made unusual efforts to create a strong organizational culture and implement sustainable operational processes to meet their self-imposed ethical standards. These socially responsibleentrepreneurs gave a substantial amount of their profits to causes of their choosing, and volunteered themselves as role models for other businesses and entrepreneurs to follow.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Triple bottom-line; Corporate social responsibility; Sustainability; Management practices
Article Outline
1. Socially responsible entrepreneurs: What do they do to build and grow their companies?2. The socially responsible entrepreneur
2.1. Sample of socially responsible companies
3. The commonalities or lessons
3.1. Commit to a meaningful purpose
3.2. Be circumspect about raising institutional capital
3.3. Hire employees with shared values
3.4. Promote your company's values
3.5. Build a strong value-centered organizational culture
3.6. Make money, but then also make exceptions3.7. Do no harm: Don’t pollute, or pollute as little as possible
3.8. Stay with it for the long haul
3.9. Give back a lot: Commit to a giving program
3.10. Be a role model for others
4. Recommendations
References
1. Socially responsible entrepreneurs: What do they do to build and grow their companies?
In contrast to [Milton] Friedman, I do not believe maximizing profits for the investors isthe only acceptable justification for all corporate actions. The investors are not the only people who matter. Corporations can exist for purposes other than simply maximizing profits. – John Mackey, Founder and President of Whole Foods (Reason, 2005)
We are helping to create a new mind-set that responsible practices and profitable practices are one and the same. It's more difficult to manageresponsibly and profitably but it's within our human means. It just takes being intentional about being good as well as being successful. – Tom Chappell, Founder and President of Tom's of Maine (Chappell, 1993, p. 35)
2. The socially responsible entrepreneur
More than 35 years ago the late Milton Friedman wrote a much celebrated article for The New York Times Magazine, the title of which aptlysummed up his thesis: “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits” (Friedman, 1970, p. 6). While the position of the renowned Nobel laureate may be accepted by many people in today's business world, a surprisingly large number of intriguing, though not widely studied, entrepreneurs have adopted an alternative business philosophy. These so-called socially responsible,values-led/centered, ethical, or sustainable entrepreneurs endeavor to be good as well as successful by simultaneously achieving economic (profit), environmental, and social goals—the so-called triple bottom-line (Elkington, 1994). They build profitable companies, and also significantly contribute to the greater good of society, an outcome that they believe traditional capitalism has been ineffective...