Please explain the theory and give a couple example of the theory in
todays business world

Hi,

I'm assuming you're reading Anarchy, State and Utopia and want to have
a broad picture of the Entitlement Theroy.

Basically, Nozick's entitlement theory is a theory of justice. More
specifically, it is a theory of how society ought or ought not
regulate the distribution of goods (money, property, etc., al). What
it is "NOT" is a classical theory of justice about issues such as law
and order, crime and punishment etc. al. It is also not a grand theory
of justice such as Plato's theory.

In this vein, it is a theory of justice that follows some rather
memorable contemporary theories of justice such as John Rawls; "Theory
of Justice" and Marx's theory of distribution. The Standford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy provides a very nice capsule of current
theories of distributive justice.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-distributive/

Like all philosophy, Nozick's theory builds on basic principles, three
to be exact. A philosophy professor from the University of Missouri
lays them out as follows:

1. Transfer principle:Holdings (actually) freely acquired from others
who acquired them in a just way are justly acquired.
2. Acquisition principle: Persons are entitled to holdings initially
acquired in a just way (according to the Lockean Proviso).
3. Rectification principle: Rectify violations of 1 or 2 by restoring
holdings to their rightful owners, or a "one time" redistribution
according to the Difference Principle.

http://www.missouri.edu/~philrnj/nozick.html

R.J. Kilcullen, from Macquarie University in Australia further
elaborates on the theory by saying,

"Nozick classifies theories of justice as (1) either end-result or
historical, and (2) either patterned or unpatterned. The entitlement
theory is historical and unpatterned. It does not demand that the
distribution resulting from just acquisitions, transfers and
rectifications be patterned, i.e. correlated with anything else (such
as moral merit, need, usefulness to society); people may be entitled
to things got by chance or gift. Any distribution, irrespective of any
pattern it may or may not have, is just provided it has the
appropriate history, provided it did in fact come about in accordance
with the rules of acquisition, transfer and rectification."

http://www.humanities.mq.edu.au/Ockham/y64l17.html

In a nutshell, then, Nozick's "Entitlement Theory" argues against
social and government policies that redistribute wealth via taxation
and other programs. This would be in opposition to Marxist or
socialist theories that advocate a redistribution of wealth. Marx, for
example, is famous for saying, From Each According to His Abilities,
To Each According to His Needs" meaning that members of a society
should work at what they do best. Some people have the ability to be
doctors, some lawyers. Others may have lesser abilities to be
housekeepers etc. However, according to distributive therories of
justice, everyone, regardless of abilities should have their needs
met.

This would mean things such as food, shelter, clothing, education,
health care.

Nozick would argue against the justice of taxing (or overtaxing) the
rich to pay for the programs that provide for the needs of the poor
(providing that the wealth that the rich accumulated came according to
his three principles).

Another example of Nozick's theory in action would be a justification
of "free market economics" versus government regulated markets or
central control economies such as those found in the former Sovier
bloc states.

Additional Resources:
http://www.quebecoislibre.org/020427-13.htm

Search Strategy:
Nozick, entitlement theory
Distributive Justice

This was great.The fact the I had to different comments made it better. Thanks

Hello Bren.  Interesting question, and it will be even more
interesting to see what folks come up with in the way of "examples".

Nozick was a Harvard philosopher who died not long ago.  He was
conservative, some would say libertarian, in his insistence on the
bare minimum amount of government needed to keep society functioning. 
His entitlement theory embodied this -- government should keep its
hands off any private property or wealth that an individual has
legitimately come by.  In other words, people are "entitled" to keep
what they own, and this ownership, in Nozick's view, is essential to
justice and fair play.

A brief summary of his theory can be found at:

http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/~ghh/319/Lecture17/tsld004.htm

As for examples...good luck.  This is a theory of
government/justice/market forces that -- like Adam Smith's perfect
capitalist system -- exists ONLY in theory.  The move in recent
decades towards free market, less government, less regulation, etc. is
certainly consistent with some of Nozick's way of thinking, but it's
hard (for me anyway) to point to concrete examples.  Nozick himself
uses Wilt Chamberlain as an example (of sorts)...you might want to
look into that at:

http://www.iusb.edu/~lzynda/lect13.html

which also includes a more detailed description of his (Nozick's, not
Chamberlain's) theory.