ABSTRACT
Defining the purpose, the raison d'etre, of enterprise, means agreeing to place its operation in the broader context of ethics and the common good, without which it has no political or moral legitimacy. The raison d'etre of the business firm should be anchored in its specific function. This specificity is defined in terms of initiative, creativity and innovation in economic, technical and organisational fields. In these areas, its action is fundamentally entrepreneurial. Business will only be responsible if it places its specific function within the context of the sustainable human development view. Questioning the purpose of enterprise and the development model it follows is to question material progress, its focus and its ambiguities. In a market system economy, an enterprise is the very agent of economic and technical creativity. It is enterprise that implements it and gives it concrete form.
