“Big” Business Ethics Textbooks: Where Do Small Business and Entrepreneurship Fit?

Cathy Driscoll; Mengsteab Tesfayohannes

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“Big” Business Ethics Textbooks: Where Do Small Business and Entrepreneurship Fit?

Cathy Driscoll

Sobey School of Business, Saint Mary’s University, Canada

Mengsteab Tesfayohannes

Sigmund Weis School of Business, Susquehanna University, United States

Volume 6: 2009, pp. 25-42: ABSTRACT

We content-analyzed sixteen business ethics textbooks to assess the extent to which small business and entrepreneurship concepts appear in these texts. We found that scenarios related to large corporations and executive level decision-making dominate discussions and applications. These texts have very little to no coverage of small business and entrepreneurship and relevant ethical issues. We discuss this missing link and implications for integrating small business, entrepreneurship, and ethics into business ethics education.