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Scientific Article details

Title Fashioning ethical subjectivity: The embodied ethics of entrepreneurial self-formation
ID_Doc 68372
Authors Poldner, K; Branzei, O; Steyaert, C
Title Fashioning ethical subjectivity: The embodied ethics of entrepreneurial self-formation
Year 2019
Published Organization, 26, 2
DOI 10.1177/1350508418793990
Abstract Organizational ethics has attracted increasing attention, but how individuals make sense of themselves as ethical subjects is a yet to be explored domain. The few empirical articles on ethical subjectivity have focused on how people within organizations seek to find a balance between a sense of ethical selfhood and dominant organizational discourse. We are interested in the role of the body and embodied experiences in constructing the entrepreneurial self and how this process unfolds over time. Viewing entrepreneuring as an ethical practice, we rely on a larger study of 58 entrepreneurs and a smaller multi-modal ethnography of three entrepreneurs in the ethical fashion industry. Drawing on the Deleuzian four folds of subjectivity that we employ as an analytical device, the data analysis reveals how our protagonists use the body as sensor, source, and processor in constructing themselves as ethical subjects. Our study complements rational perspectives on ethical decision making in entrepreneurship and establishes the body as a primary mechanism for one's formation as an ethical subject. Through connecting the body with ethics, we aim to disclose the continuous subtle interaction between morality and materiality in the process of entrepreneuring. Our abductive framework discloses how one's body prompts and informs the development of moral actions and material artifacts.
Author Keywords Embodiment; entrepreneurship; ethics; process model; sustainable fashion
Index Keywords Index Keywords
Document Type Other
Open Access Open Access
Source Social Science Citation Index (SSCI)
EID WOS:000461038900001
WoS Category Management
Research Area Business & Economics
PDF https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1350508418793990
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