Marina Vorholzer

My primary research interests concern entrepreneurship and moral philosophy. The doctoral research is embedded in a larger project: “Cultural ideals in the entrepreneurship industry”. This project attends to the phenomena of innovation theater (i.e., seemingly entrepreneurial activities with no meaningful outcomes) and the entrepreneurship industry (i.e., products, services, and education that are ought to promote entrepreneurial action). As such, the research project investigates the recent explosion in new venture activities and – while considering cultural ideals and norms in the entrepreneurship scene – questions the dominant depiction of entrepreneurship as something inherently productive.

In my dissertation, I extend an emergent debate in entrepreneurship literature on the “bright and dark sides” of entrepreneurial phenomena. This research stream contrasts how entrepreneurship can be either productive (value-adding) or destructive (value-depriving). Empirically, however, the ethicality of many entrepreneurial opportunities is more nuanced. By drawing heavily on ethical theories, my dissertation unpacks the grey zone in-between the bright and dark sides and explores entrepreneurial action that is productive and destructive – dependent on the perspective taken. Entrepreneurs who aim to “do things the right way” oftentimes face conflicting ethical interpretations in deciding what is “the right thing to do”. I study the cognitive processes underlying the entrepreneurs’ ethical assessments and investigate how these well-intended individuals come to take action when confronted with such ethical dilemmas.