Values and Freedom: An inquiry into the rise and fall of billionaire wealth

Over the last decades the amount of billionaires has grown significantly. This dissertation provides a pioneering study into this extreme form of entrepreneurship by studying the phenomena on three levels of analysis: a societal, individual and decision-based. It studies the effects of economic freedom, stakeholders and individual decisions on the wealth of billionaires. The quantitative panel data study includes 15 years of data from 50 different countries for the analysis of the effects of amongst others economic freedom and markets on billionaire wealth. The individual case study on Warren Buffett deepens our theoretical understanding of the drivers behind his historical donation to charity. The theoretical perspective is based on developing the stakeholder theory of the individual. The stakeholder theory of the individual complements the existing literature by providing a more holistic perspective of the individual including our professional, private and other relationships as essential and integrated parts of our forms of value creation. The dissertation argues for a stakeholder-interested rather than a narrow self-interested perspective on human motivation. The dissertation continues to develop a complementing individual- and value centred perspective on entrepreneurship as stakeholder transformation. Ultimately, the dissertation emphasizes the importance of individual freedom and responsibility in our roles as consumers, employees, citizens, family members and investors et.c. in order to enable more constructive forms of entrepreneurship and balanced societal development