No Man Lives on an Island: Habitual Agency and Complexity in Entrepreneurial Decision-Making

International Journal of Complexity in Leadership and Management, Forthcoming

22 Pages Posted: 26 May 2016

See all articles by Desmond W. Ng

Desmond W. Ng

Texas A&M University

Harvey S. James, Jr.

University of Missouri at Columbia - Division of Applied Social Sciences

Date Written: March 2016

Abstract

An entrepreneur’s creation of value and moral leadership is primarily an individualized phenomenon. The objective of this study is to develop a socio-cognitive model where an entrepreneur’s enactment of valuable opportunities and a moral awareness for others operate within a complex social setting. We develop a “practiced” concept of habitual agency where an entrepreneur enacts tightly coupled stakeholder exchanges that confirm an entrepreneur’s asymmetric advantage. This habitual agency seeks not only to reduce the “causal ambiguities” surrounding complex stakeholder exchanges, but also to apply repeatedly a generalized moral standard — Golden rule — to an entrepreneur’s tightly coupled exchange partners. This sociocognitive explanation of entrepreneurship appeals to the holistic and interdependent tenets of complex systems where entrepreneurship cannot be examined in isolation of the complexities of their social realities. The implications and contributions of this socio-cognitive approach to entrepreneurship and complexity research are also highlighted.

Keywords: Habitual Agency, Entrepreneurial Ethics, Complex Interactions, Stakeholders

JEL Classification: M13, M14

Suggested Citation

Ng, Desmond W. and James, Harvey S., No Man Lives on an Island: Habitual Agency and Complexity in Entrepreneurial Decision-Making (March 2016). International Journal of Complexity in Leadership and Management, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2783865

Desmond W. Ng

Texas A&M University ( email )

Langford Building A
798 Ross St.
College Station, TX 77843-3137
United States

Harvey S. James (Contact Author)

University of Missouri at Columbia - Division of Applied Social Sciences ( email )

Columbia, MO
United States
573-884-9682 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://hsjames2.wordpress.com

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