By: Alessandro Daliana

Alessandro Daliana — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 20:57:59 +0000

Very nice article, and certainly a meaningful point of view.
In my own work, I have simplified the whole issue into its component parts. Universally, we all experience struggles. People can some times overcome these struggles on their own, however often require some help. When enough people seek help from on party, the opportunity to start a “busy”-ness are present. Businesses go through 5 phases: (1) entirely dependent on the owner, (2) education/apprenticeship, (3) mechanization, (4) branding, and (5) information. Aside from the first phase, the rest depend entirely upon developing tools. This is where things get tricky. How does the community consider the ownership of tools? To be more precise, every community, be it through their belief system and/or their collective experience, will have a different attitude toward tools, which is another way of saying property or in technical terms assets.
From a Protestant perspective, the value a business provides to a customer to help them through their struggle accrues mostly to the owner of the tool/property/asset which makes it possible. “Freeing” another from their struggle then becomes an ideal to which all should aspire because it is of value to our fellow man. However, that pre-requisite for freedom can then be mirrored in our attitudes toward the asset itself resulting in the asset owner wanting free “reign” to use their property as they see fit. The legislator then needs to come in and regulate the use of that property to maintain a balance of private and public interest through laws, regulations, and taxation.
However, not everyone has the same views toward property as Protestants do because not everyone is a Protestant. In some communities, the value made possible by the asset accrues principally to the end user directly or indirectly through the intermediary of the state. A quick illustration of such variations can be found in the different interpretations of the hero myth. In Western culture the hero provides some benefit to the community the members of which will then elevate that person to high a position, like village chief, CEO, President, and so on. While in the East, the same hero will leave the community to contemplate life on a mountain top somewhere.
It is said, that when the Chinese e-commerce company was introduced into the US stock market its founder Jack Ma stated that his first responsibility was to the company’s clients and employees. Or something of that sort. This attitude is entirely consistent with an Eastern worldview. Likewise, the conflict in the Middle East can be understood as a rejection of Western values which place the individual above the community which makes sense when you consider the regions resource poor past.
Consequently, although entrepreneurship is common to all societies as a response to a communities struggle to achieve a specific outcome, where we differ is how that value is apportioned. To understand those differences we only need to look the history and present day attitudes toward property.

Comments on: Entrepreneurialism and Society: Addressing the Broken Bond by Prabhu Guptara

By: Alessandro Daliana