Global Entrepreneurship Week: To Celebrate or Not to Celebrate, That is the Question

Three years ago, in Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020, Felicity and I founded The Harmonious Entrepreneurship Society, now a limited spinout company of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, the 2022 Triple E European Entrepreneurial University of the Year. We did so to promote our new approach to entrepreneurship, intended to address the global sustainability challenge (Kirby and El-Kaffass, 2021). As followers will be aware, this is a systems-based approach that produces a triple bottom-line business model in which profit, planet, and people are in harmony.

Global Entrepreneurship Week was launched in 2008, having been preceded by Enterprise Week UK and, in 2007, Entrepreneurship Week USA. It is intended to celebrate the role of entrepreneurship in economic growth and encourage the creation of innovative new ventures that create wealth and jobs. It is particularly aimed at young people of school age, and over the years it has grown and, in many countries, has not only changed mindsets but helped create an enterprise rather than a dependency culture—a culture where the alternative to employment is no longer unemployment and dependency on the state. While entrepreneurship has certainly been responsible for bringing about change and new forms have been developed to address environmental, humane, and social issues, the traditional emphasis has been on economic development and wealth creation. Indeed, since 1970, the prevailing doctrine has been that the social purpose of business is shareholder satisfaction and making” as much money as possible” (Friedman, 1970). As a consequence, it can be argued that the “dark side” of entrepreneurship has at least contributed to the present global sustainability crisis, if not created it. Accordingly, Harmonious Entrepreneurship contends that the purpose of entrepreneurship should be to make as much money as possible, but not at the expense of people and the planet—that profit, planet, and people should be in harmony with each other. Hence, the purpose of Harmonious Entrepreneurship has been to bring about a change in the way entrepreneurship is taught and practiced—to shift the emphasis from wealth creation and economic development to sustainability (Kirby, El-Kaffass, and Healey-Benson, 2022; 2023). To promote the concept we have had since our inception, we have had much success, including picking up various awards. However, the world is still teetering on the edge of a global crisis. As the Secretary General of the UN said at COP 27 last November, “We are on the highway to climate hell, and our foot is still on the accelerator”.

However, since the planet is a system, it is not just a climatic problem the world is facing, and we need to address social and humane issues as well as those pertaining to the environment and the economy. Indeed, the world is very different from that in which Birch (1979) demonstrated the importance of entrepreneurship to job generation or Drucker (1985) emphasised the contribution of entrepreneurship to innovation. While these remain important, entrepreneurship has created jobs and produced important innovations, but the greater problem now is the impact it has had and is having on the planet and its people.

Fortunately, there is growing awareness of the problem, and initiatives have been introduced that range from support organisations such as ORB (Organisation for Responsible Business) to the high-profile Earthshot Prize of HRH The Prince of Wales. Additionally, young people are becoming more aware of the challenges the planet is facing, and perhaps it is no coincidence that, in addition to its established University League Table, the Times Higher has introduced its Universities Impact Rankings. Even so, businesses, governments, and even educational establishments often appear to be reluctant to address, directly and urgently, the sustainability challenge and abandon the notion of wealth creation and “making as much money as possible”. As a consequence, it would seem that “the more things change, the more they remain the same”.

So, in answer to the question, “Should we celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week?” Our answer is most definitely yes. It has achieved much but there is still much, much more to be achieved, and we need to ensure that we are not just celebrating the contribution entrepreneurship has made to
economic development and wealth creation. Entrepreneurship has the ability to address the global sustainability challenge and save the planet, but we must ensure that GEW demonstrates to our young people exactly how this can be achieved and how they can contribute.

This Global Entrepreneurship Week, entrepreneurship educators around the globe need to bring about change; they need to introduce to our subject the changes that are urgently required for it to save the planet and its inhabitants.

We are here to help. One of our main activities this week is with the teachers and children of Dafen Primary School in Llanelli, helping them with their entrepreneurship celebrations and showcasing to a congregation of other schools and educators what can be achieved—but more of that later in the week.

For now, enjoy the week, whatever you do and wherever you are.

References

Birch, D. (1979), The Job Generation Process. Massachusetts: MIT Program on Neighbourhood and Regional Change.

Drucker, P. (1985). Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles. New York: Harper & Row.

Friedman, M. (1970). The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits. New York Times, September 13, pp. 122-126.

Kirby, D.A. & El-Kaffass, I. (2021). Harmonious entrepreneurship- a new approach to the challenge of global sustainability. The World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management, and Sustainable Development, 17(4), 846-855. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJEMSD-09-2020-0126

Kirby, D.A., El-Kaffass, I., & Healey-Benson, F. (2022). Harmonious entrepreneurship: Evolution from wealth creation to sustainable development. Journal of Management History, 28(4), 514-529. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-11-2021-0060

Kirby, D.A., El-Kaffass, I., & Healey-Benson, F. (2023). The leopard’s spots are changing: An evolutionary approach to ecological sustainability. In J.J. Ferreira & P.J. Murphy (Eds.), Bleeding-edge entrepreneurship: Digitalization, blockchains, space, the ocean, and artificial intelligence (Contemporary issues in entrepreneurship research, Vol. 16, pp. 31-49). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited. doi:10.1108/S2040-724620230000016004

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