László Zsolnai

Norwegian Course on Sustainable Value Creation

Between August 12 and November 12, 2021, members of the Business Ethics Center taught an online course on “Sustainable Value Creation” for the students of the Masters in Global Management Program of the University of Nord, Bodo, Norway. Faculty included Laszlo Zsolnai, Andras Ocsai, and Tamas Veress (Business Ethics Center), Jozsef Veress (Department of Information Systems, Corvinus University of Budapest), Janos Vargha (Danube Circle, Budapest), and Ove Jakobsen (Nord University). Course modules included the following:… Read More »Norwegian Course on Sustainable Value Creation

From Ethics to Spirituality

In his paper on “From ethics to spirituality: Laszlo Zsolnai on human motivations” (in Luk Bouckaert, Knut J. Ims, and Peter Rona (Eds.): Art, Spirituality and Economics. Liber Amicorum for Laszlo Zsolnai. Springer, 2018. pp. 83-95.) Zsolt Boda argues that an important part of Laszlo Zsolnai’s oeuvre focuses on the individual: the model of economic actor, human motivations in decision making, and the problem of the modern self. The paper will, first, present his intellectual journey… Read More »From Ethics to Spirituality

Ethical Business Leadership in Troubling Times

Joanne B. Ciulla and Tobey K. Scharding (Eds.): Ethical Leadership in Troubling Times. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2019. (This book may be available at: Edward Elgar) Perhaps the fundamental question in CSR is: What are the main responsibilities of businesses and business leadership to society? Moreover, do the responsibilities of business change in times of social and political turmoil? The papers in this book tackle several aspects of these questions with chapters on business and politics,… Read More »Ethical Business Leadership in Troubling Times

Lecturing On Frugal Consumption in Los Angeles

On November 19, 2021, Laszlo Zsolnai gave a lecture on “Spiritual Humanism – The Case for Frugal Consumption” in the “Corporate Social Responsibility and Good Governance” course of the Soka University of America, Aliso Viejo, Los Angeles. In his lecture Zsolnai discussed the problems of the dominating overconsumption patterns of Western societies, namely welfare malaises, global inequality, and ecological overshot. He argued for frugal consumption that can be characterized as (i) mindful (as it serves… Read More »Lecturing On Frugal Consumption in Los Angeles

In Memoriam Janos Kornai

Janos Kornai, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and Corvinus University of Budapest died on October 18, 2021. He was one of the most influential economists of his generation. He developed an anti-Walrasian economic framework within which both capitalist and socialist systems can be described and analyzed. I had the privilege of knowing Janos Kornai for 40 years. I collaborated with him on several occasions. My first academic publication was a methodological analysis of his… Read More »In Memoriam Janos Kornai

The Business of Happiness and Wellbeing

Laszlo Zsolnai gave a lecture in the “Happiness Talk Series” of Rekhi Centre for The Science of Happiness at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur on October 30, 2021. He introduced the Western (Aristotelian) and the Eastern (Buddhist) conceptions of happiness and discussed the contemporary approaches to wellbeing. He argued that the purpose of the firm should be redefined. Instead of maximizing profit, firms should maximize the wellbeing of all the stakeholders. He presented cases… Read More »The Business of Happiness and Wellbeing

Business within Limits: Deep Ecology and Buddhist Economics

Laszlo Zsolnai & Knut J. Ims (Eds.): Business within Limits: Deep Ecology and Buddhist Economics. Peter Lang, Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2006. (This book may be available at Amazon) The book aims to explore the Deep Ecology perspective and Buddhist Economics for transforming business toward a more ecological and human form. Business is an existential enterprise because its decisions and policies greatly influence the fate and survival of nature,… Read More »Business within Limits: Deep Ecology and Buddhist Economics