Temporality and Meaningful Entrepreneurship

Sandrine Frémeaux () and François Henry
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Sandrine Frémeaux: Audencia Business School
François Henry: Icam Lille

Journal of Business Ethics, 2023, vol. 188, issue 4, No 7, 725-739

Abstract: Abstract Temporality is an under-researched area in entrepreneurship and business ethics, even though entrepreneurs are particularly affected by a fast-paced work environment. How do they position themselves in relation to the acceleration of time in order to construct meaning for their activity? We draw on fifty-four semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs to outline the different ways in which they perceive a faster pace of work. We show how the meaning they give to their activity varies according to whether they accept or resist the acceleration of time: (1) By claiming to accept a high work rate, entrepreneurs may see work as a way of keeping busy, having fun, forgetting, or achieving efficiency; (2) by asserting that they resist the acceleration of time, they view work as a way of setting ethical goals, doing their job better, experiencing unexpected encounters, or being creative. These two different perspectives on time and meaning are not incompatible: It is possible that achieving a harmonic balance between periods of acceleration and deceleration of time may foster the construction of meaningful entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Acceleration of time; Deceleration of time; Meaningful work; Meaningful entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-023-05502-0

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