Dr Samuel Mwaura of the University of Edinburgh Business School and David Hume Institute trustee will discuss this latest thinking on capitalism and entrepreneurship with Dr Robbie Mochrie, author of How to think like an economist and Fran van Dijk, founder and CEO of One Stone Advisors. One Stone is Scotland's first B Corp: a certified company that meets high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. 

One aspect of Adam Smith’s intellectual legacy has been surprisingly neglected in recent times: his grapples with the paradox of profit. 

Smith repeatedly, and resignedly, regarded profit an obscure “garb” and vehemently decried capitalists that profited at the expense of society. Indeed, while profit is incorrectly regarded as a return to capital, Smith and his peers instead associated residual profit with entrepreneurship although both concepts remained loose. 

Dr Mwaura will discuss how classical economics had more firmly established interest as the return to capital. Yet, as capitalism emerged, capital rather expediently commandeered profit. Subsequently, profit became the sacrosanct lifeblood of capitalism, and the elephant in the room, unquestioned despite its importance “to our understanding of our economic order and, especially, to an appraisal of its fairness” as Harry Brown, a celebrated Georgist economist, observed in 1945. 

This event will return to this neglected debate, first decoupling profit from capital. It then building on Adam Smith and other classical thinkers to develop a radical new understanding of profit as residual errors to eradicate, not maximise, and firmly link this to entrepreneurship. This enables a coherent and readily implementable pathway to a new economy that delivers fair and sustainable outcomes, by design.

This event is bought to you in partnership with the University of Edinburgh Business School.

Registration and refreshments from 6.00pm. The event will start promptly at 6.15pm and will finish at 7.30pm, followed by a drinks reception.

A recording of the event will be posted as soon as it is available.

About the speakers:

Dr Samuel Mwaura is Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at the University of Edinburgh Business School and National Co-Lead of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (Scotland). Samuel’s research interests are in the areas of inclusive entrepreneurship, especially amongst ethnic minorities, women, and other minoritised groups; entrepreneurial finance; and the economics of entrepreneurship and innovation, including evaluations of the multi-level links between firm level outcomes and personal and household factors, entrepreneurial ecosystems, regional factors, and wider economic, institutional and policy influences.

Dr Robbie Mochrie’s work concentrates on understanding how people engage with, and are able to shape, the economic environment that surrounds them.  This has involved work on the development of economic thought, especially in the 13th century and the Scottish Enlightenment; the historical development of the Scottish churches, understood as economic institutions; and challenges to the development of British credit unions.

Robbie is also author of How to think like an economist.

Fran van Dijk is a founding partner of One Stone Advisors Ltd, which helps global companies become more successful sustainability leaders. One Stone is a founding UK B Corp and a Best for the World honouree.

Fran advises businesses on managing opportunity and risk to build long-term value, working with them to ensure that their core strategy, sustainability values and communications align. She helps emerging sustainability leaders integrate the SDGs into their strategy and prioritise the Goals for better business planning and stakeholder engagement. Clients include Carlsberg Group, Electrolux, Ericsson, TUI Travel, Edrington, Tetra Pak and SSE.

Fran holds degrees from the University of Cambridge and the European Association for Environmental Management Education. She is co-author of Creating a Culture of Integrity: Business Ethics for the 21st Century, and has served on the Boards of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Macaulay Development Trust.  Fran is currently a non-executive director (public interest member) of ICAS.