Who is John Galt? From rational egoism to social responsibility through entrepreneurial passion
ISSN: 1747-1117
Article publication date: 30 July 2024
Issue publication date: 21 November 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Enterprising individuals are frequently portrayed as rational agents who maximize their own interests. At the same time, an increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use social responsibility strategies, incorporating collective interests into their business agenda. This study aims to analyze the interplay between the rational and emotional aspects of the entrepreneurial personal identity and address its implications for the socially responsible behavior of businesses by drawing on the literature on entrepreneurial identity, the objectivism (rational egoism) philosophical perspective and the concept of entrepreneurial passion.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 333 Russian SMEs is used to test the research hypotheses. The study follows the quantitative research strategy, wherein the main assumptions are examined based on mediation testing techniques.
Findings
The results suggest that entrepreneurs whose personal identities are rooted in objectivism values are less likely to foster culture of social responsibility within their firms. At the same time, their entrepreneurial passion mitigates the negative effect of objectivism on social responsiveness of the venture.
Originality/value
This research enhances the understanding of entrepreneurial personality and can help policymakers promote social responsibility in small and medium businesses, showing that they need to communicate effectively with SMEs’ leaders and align their policies with entrepreneurial values and beliefs.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Disclosure statement: The author reports no competing interests to declare.
Research involving Human Participants: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with APA guidelines or comparable ethical standards.
Data availability statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the author upon reasonable request.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
The author would like to thank Prof. Tatiana Manolova, Dr Oleksiy Osiyevskyy and Dr Denis Grégoire for their invaluable comments on the earlier versions of this study.
Citation
Bogatyreva, K. (2024), "Who is John Galt? From rational egoism to social responsibility through entrepreneurial passion", Social Responsibility Journal, Vol. 20 No. 10, pp. 2066-2083. https://doi.org/10.1108/SRJ-02-2024-0103
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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