Week 14 Reading Reflection

Questions

1) What was the biggest surprise for you in the reading? In other words, what did you read that stood out the most as different from your expectations?

The triple bottom line (TBL) is a concept that I was unfamiliar with.  It focuses on a bottom line that goes beyond profit.  It is comprised of economic, environmental, and the social; the profits, people, and the planet.

2) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I did not find much balance in the social entrepreneurship and global entrepreneurship chapter.  The social entrepreneurship aspect was largely glossed over since the majority of the chapter was dedicated to global entrepreneurship.  The text has been a major cheer leader for entrepreneurship and has offered useful best practices.  This was not the case with this chapter.  The author may be out of touch with the present day climate that is tilting more and more towards social entrepreneurship.

3) If you were able to ask two questions to the author, what would you ask? Why?

Is an L3C a back door to introduce the potentially corrupting influence of the profit motive to what would otherwise be a nonprofit?

Have NAFTA and other trade agreements only produced positive effects as has been implied in the text?  What does it mean that in table 4.2, Brazil is the only country with which the US has a trade surplus?

4) Was there anything you think the author was wrong about? Where do you disagree with what she or he said? How?

I disagree with how often the author, Donald F. Kuratko, cites his own research in the text.  This occurs in chapter after chapter and suggests that either there is not enough research on entrepreneurship so he is forced to cite his own research or more troubling, he is citing is potentially favoring or highlighting his research over others.  What concerns me even more is that he uses this approach to identify many of the best practices or theoretical paradigms around current entrepreneurship theory and lists his name without disclosing that this is his own research on a routine basis.

I write this purely on a critical advice basis.  I also do not mean to imply that the research or practices that fall within this rubric are flawed but a potential conflict of interest does cast a shadow over them.  Finally, I am bringing this up at the end of the semester after having read pretty much all of the book and comparing it various other texts that I have been exposed to.  I can think of only one other example where this may have been an issue but in that case it was a minor concern at best.