Psychic profit, entrepreneurial judgment, and hybrid organizations

Mihai Vladimir Topan, Matthew McCaffrey and Carmen-Elena Dorobat

Chapter 8 in Research Handbook on Austrian Economics in Management and Entrepreneurship, 2025, pp 152-178 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter re-examines the individual, organizational, and societal significance of profit-seeking for entrepreneurs and hybrid enterprises, including social enterprises. We begin by discussing how Austrian economists view profit-seeking in relation to their theories of entrepreneurship and the firm, and how these in turn can inform current debates about hybrid organizing. Although Austrians are sometimes associated with a myopic focus on monetary profit, writers such as Ludwig von Mises offer a nuanced view of the pros and cons of organizing using monetary profit as a guide, as well as the costs and benefits of using non-monetary alternatives. We explore some of these views in light of hybrid organizations that are thought to embody conflicting goals or logics. We show, contrary to this view, that at the individual level, entrepreneurs make choices about complex combinations of monetary profit and “psychic” profit. These choices are inherent in any form of business organization, whether it carries a hybrid or social label or not. At the organizational level, these profit combination decisions shape the size and boundaries of the firm. At the societal level, profit decisions mutually influence a complex array of institutional, legal, and moral structures.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Organization; Psychic profit; Social enterprise; Hybrid organizations; Ludwig von Mises (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035341863
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035341870.00014 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

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:elg:eechap:23708_8

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().