The contribution of the value of integrity in Confucian entrepreneurship to ethical business practices in a multicultural society

Abstract

In today’s reality, evidence shows that to mitigate unethical business practices enforcement by laws and policies on businesses is not adequate. When issues of unethical business practices of entrepreneurs are contested, research and observations from various disciplines of anthropology, sociology, history, economics, geography, heritage studies and memory studies are investigated. However, evidence from social research suggests that while the cause is complex, the dominant factor could be the integrity of business owners, especially when their business goals are profitability-centric. This real-life problem leads to the study of the core values of Confucian entrepreneurship. Among all the values, integrity is the most important value in Confucian entrepreneurship. Confucian entrepreneurship has been an under-researched area in the current business research context. The understanding of such entrepreneurship and its core values is diverse amongst business practitioners, even within the Chinese business community. The researcher undertakes to narrate this research topic from the perspectives of the classical Chinese texts, historical progression of Chinese business culture, current literature reviews, the origin of Confucian entrepreneurship, and contemporary Confucian entrepreneurs. These narratives provided the theoretical foundation of the thesis. The research findings from 25 participants – comprising successful entrepreneurs of diverse background, academics, and appropriate representatives of cultural associations – were collected to provide insightful views from various perspectives. The research findings were discussed with reference to contemporary business ideologies. This thesis examines the business ethics of Confucian and other ethnic entrepreneurs, and how their business decisions are influenced by their respective cultures and value systems. This research provided an in-depth understanding of the Value of Integrity in Confucian entrepreneurship and discussed its contribution to ethical business practices. It reflects human behaviour in terms of business ethics and current business phenomena in a multicultural society. This thesis suggested relatively more general, parsimonious, and casual explanations to explain relevant business phenomena in the Singaporean multicultural business context.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English
Supervisor	Sarvjeet Kaur CHATRATH (Supervisor) & Raechel JOHNS (Supervisor)