Ethics and business in universities: social entrepreneurship in Public Universities as transmitter of social equity

Abstract

From its origins, the university’s mission has been training professionals and specialists in different fields of knowledge. However, university is also responsible for educating genuine citizenship, ethically responsible and engaged to social reality. This paper contributes to discussions on the development of a new conceptualization of social entrepreneurship. Moreover, it contributes on the development of universities’ curricula that explicit teaching-learning processes in social entrepreneurship. We apply the content analysis method to conduct a critical review of university degrees offered by public universities in Valencia, and analyze how students are trained in social entrepreneurship. The units of analysis are 32 degree course outlines in social and legal studies fields offered in Valencia’s Public Universities. Results of our analysis show that university studies do not extend the entrepreneur perspective towards a more social and moral vision: moral and social dimensions awarded much lees importance while training is mainly focused on intellectual one. Moreover, a conducted expert team affirm that moral and social competencies of social entrepreneurship are left in the hands of hidden curriculum. In conclusion, the university curricula reproduce the scientist mentality, closed to positivist positions, which separate science as the only acceptable knowledge, and practices of morality, as subjective discourse.

Keywords

• universidad
• emprendimiento
• emprendimiento social
• competencias
• equidad social
• análisis de contenido