How Should Responsible Investors Behave? Keynes’s Distinction Between Entrepreneurship and Speculation Revisited

Christian Hecker ()

Journal of Business Ethics, 2021, vol. 171, issue 3, No 3, 459-473

Abstract: Abstract This paper deals with Keynes’s distinction between entrepreneurship and speculation, regarding business people in general and especially investors’ behaviour. Based on Keynes’s thoughts about financial markets, it analyses how different motivations influence the decision-making process of investors and its consequences for stock markets and the real economy and clarifies that Keynes’s considerations are still useful for understanding contemporary developments and risks in the financial system. Furthermore, it points out that Keynes’s theories and policy recommendations should be understood in the context of his moral considerations, especially relating to individual responsibility of investors. Finally, Keynes’s moral thoughts can be taken as a foundation for a contemporary approach to investors’ responsibility.

Keywords: Keynes; Entrepreneurship; Speculation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-020-04427-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:171:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04427-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04427-2

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().