高科技企业衍生创业的伦理困境研究

Research on the Entrepreneurial Ethical Dilemma of High-tech Enterprise Spin-offs

创业伦理困境影响创业者及其组织的道德认知,干扰创业决策并最终决定企业发展。高科技企业衍生创业是高科技成果商品化中不同要素主体相互作用的复杂过程,涉及包括母体企业在内的多个利益相关者,“创业”“衍生”“高科技”等特征使新企业更容易遭遇独特的伦理困境。在衍生创业实践中,以“创业向善”理念为导向,从创业者个人、创业企业组织和制度系统层面寻找伦理困境的对策,有助于促进高科技衍生企业走出伦理困境实现持续成长。

Enterprise spin-off is the phenomenon of separating new enterprises from stable existing parent organizations.With the rise of the entrepreneurial economy worldwide,spin-offs are blooming and the different parent organizations vary from universities to governments and to enterprises.The phenomenon of spin-off becomes a driving force of the regional economy and has attracted increasing academic attention.At the same time,the number of spin-off failures is rising.Even some of the spin-offs praised as“rising stars”often run into management difficulties due to moral stain and finally go bankrupt.The reasons are that entrepreneurs and their young organizations are likely to encounter unique and new ethical problems in a business environment full of competitive pressure,so they might get into ethical dilemmas and conflicts due to the lack of ethical guidelines to take as a refence in their organizations.Ethical dilemma,especially entrepreneurial ethical dilemma,is found to be a non-negligible factor affecting the development of high-tech spin-off enterprises at home and abroad.Entrepreneurial ethical dilemma affects the moral cognition of entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial organizations,disturbs entrepreneurial decision-making,and ultimately determines the development of new ventures.High-tech spin-off,which involves a variety of stakeholders including parent companies,is a complex commercialization process of scientific research results involving the interaction of various elements.It is the characteristics of“spin-off”,“entrepreneurship”and“high-tech”that make high-tech spin-offs more likely to encounter a unique ethical dilemma.In particular,passive and fission spin-offs often have competitive relationships and major conflicts with their parent organizations due to a natural overlap in the market,which should be paid more attention to.These types of spin-offs are the main research objects of this article.Based on the examination of the characteristics of each high-tech spin-off activities,this study finds that complex stakeholder management,negative effects of disruptive innovation,intellectual property disputes,competitive relationships,prohibition of business disputes,and the double-edged sword effect of technology are the six major factors causing ethical dilemmas in high-tech spin-offs.Therefore,the concepts of“Entrepreneurship for Social Good”should be adopted in the practice of high-tech spin-offs,and the solutions to ethical dilemmas could be formed from the levels of entrepreneurs,entrepreneurial organizations and institutional systems.Entrepreneurs should improve their social responsibility by promoting entrepreneurial learning and demonstrating entrepreneurship for social good.Entrepreneurial organizations should integrate technology for social good and competitive ethics into organizational strategy,strengthen the path dependence of ethical management in enterprises,establish a scientific and reasonable stakeholder management system,increase organizational transparency and ethical discussion,and improve the ethical atmosphere for“entrepreneurship for social good”.At the institutional level,we should establish a multinational and multi-systemic coordination system from the aspects of financial institution arrangement,ethical education,and science and technology ethical governance,enhance the participation of other major parts in the formation of corporate ethical guidance,and establish a common comprehensive governance framework.These measures can help high-tech spin-offs avoid,get out of,or alleviate ethical dilemmas and achieve sustainable growth.