{"id":3639,"date":"2025-07-08T15:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3639"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:52:16","slug":"why-do-good-entrepreneurs-do-bad-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-do-good-entrepreneurs-do-bad-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Good Entrepreneurs Do Bad Things?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes start-ups founded by entrepreneurs with lofty goals and ideals do bad things, for example, by destroying the natural environment through pollution or habitat degradation, said Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd<\/a> of the University of Notre Dame. It may lead to a cognitive disconnect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey may continue to do it, but still tell themselves that they\u2019re good people, and the way they do that is this term called \u2018moral disengagement,\u2019\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cSay that I didn\u2019t have a choice to be able to do it, or I have some explanation for why my bench is destroying the natural environment but at the same time, I can still have this perspective that I’m a moral and ethical person who does care about the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like a paradox; they\u2019re really holding these two mutually exclusive things together in their mind,\u201d he said. \u201cEntrepreneurs had this passion and this identity to drive forward in the pursuit of opportunities, and they just keep going, so it\u2019s a momentum argument in some ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cA similar argument can be made to explain the Theranos scandal\u2014[founder and former CEO] Elizabeth Holmes kept telling herself, in some ways lying to herself, and believing that she wasn\u2019t telling lies, but in fact, she was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The destructive side of entrepreneurship refers to negative effects on society\u2014from damage to resources owned or accessed by others\u2014as a result of entrepreneurial action.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an example of destructive entrepreneurship, I might be in the Amazon rainforest and completely take out all the trees in order to manufacture timber and paper products\u2014I\u2019m destroying the natural environment,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cOr I pollute the environment and, rather than try and capture those pollutants, I might suggest that my product is more environmentally friendly than it actually is, like Volkswagen did with their catalytic converters\u2014they said that they were more efficient than they actually were.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could belying about how environmentally friendly your products or your services actually are\u2014some people call that greenwashing, where you try and say, \u2018I\u2019m environmentally-friendly because I do these things,\u2019 and you tell yourself, \u2018I\u2019m doing those things, then maybe I can cheat in these other ways,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cSo they\u2019re working to create a public opinion, a public impression, that they\u2019re environmentally friendly, but in reality, they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re doing destructive things, so those are examples of destructive entrepreneurship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher Sometimes start-ups founded by entrepreneurs with lofty goals and ideals do bad things, for example, by destroying the natural environment through pollution or habitat degradation, said Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd of the University of Notre Dame. It may lead to a cognitive disconnect. \u201cThey may continue to do it, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,22,72,21],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate-social-responsibility","category-entrepreneurship","category-ethics","category-innovation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Do Good Entrepreneurs Do Bad Things? - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-do-good-entrepreneurs-do-bad-things\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-do-good-entrepreneurs-do-bad-things\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-do-good-entrepreneurs-do-bad-things\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Why Do Good Entrepreneurs Do Bad Things?\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T15:52:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-do-good-entrepreneurs-do-bad-things\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":420,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-do-good-entrepreneurs-do-bad-things\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/man-listens-to-angel-and-devil1.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY\",\"ENTREPRENEURSHIP\",\"ETHICS\",\"INNOVATION\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-do-good-entrepreneurs-do-bad-things\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-do-good-entrepreneurs-do-bad-things\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-do-good-entrepreneurs-do-bad-things\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why Do Good Entrepreneurs Do Bad Things? 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