Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

2014

Disciplines

Business

Advisor

Wendy Klepetar

Abstract

The power of storytelling has long been a means to teach ethical lessons. In modern days, stories come through the forms of oral narrations, movie watching, novel reading, as well as many other mediums. It could be said that stories are more than just a plot that is received by a person; rather, stories are an experience that causes an emotional interaction with the receiver. Science has shown that mirror neurons in the brain respond empathetically to the characters of these fictional stories. Empathy and perspective-taking are two of the defining features of Moral Imagination, an ethical theory first developed by David Hume.

It has been discovered that entrepreneurs naturally display a tendency to apply the principles of Moral Imagination to their decision-making practices. Because of the personal aspect of being in charge of their own company, entrepreneurs display an inclination to be very emotionally invested in business decisions. This is exemplified by a moral imagination-based study of entrepreneurs done by John McVea (2009), which showed “entrepreneurs were more likely to react emotionally (to a hypothetical test), as well as take a more personal (as opposed to professional) point of view on [business making decisions]”. My research had a hypothesis that a correlation exists between stories, entrepreneurs, and moral imagination principles. This has proved to be true and the exploratory attempt is an attempt to pave the way for future research.

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