Why some entrepreneurs commit to business ethics, report of a Glaserian grounded theory research

Today public opinion and researchers in Iran believe violation of ethical principles is undeniable reality and public concern. However, there are successful entrepreneurs in food industry which their commitment to business ethics is rare. Due to need to deep understanding of alive experience of successful entrepreneurs and they flourish in business ethical actions, this applied qualitative research tries to explore subjects’ understanding of business ethics essence and their reasons to commitment to it, by classic grounded theory. Authors tried to explain their business ethical experiences on through deep interviews and find reasons to commitment. Research population is Iranian food industry successful entrepreneurs which identified by criterion like owners ownership of established firms, repeated innovation, ownership of brand; final selection has been down by purposeful sampling. Data has been gathered through ten event based interviews. Data analysis has been done through two real and theoretical coding by using classic grounded theory. Findings are that subjects have different understanding from business ethics. Their main concern is acquire benefit (interest and BREKAT) through guaranteed way and it is fulfilled by balancing self-interests and stakeholders interests in business weightier. However, stakeholders are different in their views. The reason for their commitment to business ethics is benefit which is functionalistic. Though, benefit for some of them is economic interest and business development, for others it is economic interest and BAREKAT which is result of satisfaction of latent stakeholder of business.