Papers

Knut J. Ims, Ove Jakobsen, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Product as process — Commodities in mechanic and organic ontology.’ Ecological Economics, 2015, vol. 110, pp. 11-14 This article explores and interprets the product concept in two different ontologies: mechanistic and organic. A required shift in the ontology for understanding commodities has crucial implications for economic theory and practice. In mainstream economics the product is understood in terms of  mechanistic ontology: as a fixed and atomized commodity, to be… Read More »Product as process — Commodities in mechanic and organic ontology

Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Materialistic versus Non-materialistic Value-orientation in Management.’ , in Business and the Greater Good. Rethinking Business Ethics in an Age of Crisis, eds. Knut J. Ims, and Lars Jacob Tynes Pedersen, Edward Elgar, Cheltelham, UK, Northampton, MA, USA, 2015. (This book may be available at: Edward Elgar) The Occupy Wall Street and other anti-globalization movement show a drastic loss of confidence in business. Mainstream business lost credibility and trust worldwide. The basic assumptions of business management became questionable.… Read More »Materialistic versus Non-materialistic Value-orientation in Management

Katalin Illes, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘The Role of Spirituality in Business Education.’ Society and Business Review, 2015, vol.10, no. 1, pp. 67-75 The paper argues that there is a strong imbalance in business education between providing abstract, rational concepts and opportunities for personal growth. Introducing spirituality in business education seems to be desirable if we want to prepare students for the complexities and challenges of the workplace today. The authors give an example of how techniques from voice… Read More »The Role of Spirituality in Business Education

Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Emprendedorismo guiado por la espiritualidad (Spiritually Driven Entrepreneurship) .’ Revista Cultura Económica , 2014, vol.32, no. 88, pp. 25-46 The paper presents cases of spiritually driven entrepreneurship from the USA, Europe and India and discusses the changes required for business organizations to become ecologically sustainable, future respecting and pro-social entities. Emprendedorismo guiado por la espiritualidad (Spiritually Driven Entrepreneurship)

Knut J. Ims, Lars Jacob Tynen Pedersen, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘How Economic Incentives Destroy Social, Ecological and Existential Values: The Case of Executive Compensation.’ Journal of Business Ethics , 2014, vol.123, no. 2, pp. 353-360 Executive compensation has long been a prominent topic in the management literature. A main question that is also given substantial attention in the business ethics literature – even more so in the wake of the recent financial crisis – is whether increasing levels of… Read More »How Economic Incentives Destroy Social, Ecological and Existential Values: The Case of Executive Compensation

Knut J. Ims, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Ethics of Social Innovation.’ Society and Business Review , 2014, vol.9, no. 2, pp. 186-194 The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main reasons for social innovations to be successful in developing countries.Four famous cases of social innovation are studied and contrasted in the following dimensions: goals, means and skills/resources needed by the user. The authors argue that exemplary social innovations do not have profit as their primary objective but emphasize… Read More »Ethics of Social Innovation

Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Responsible Social Science in the Age of Economic Crisis.’ Human Systems Management , 2014, vol.33, no. 1, pp. 1-5 The current economic crisis calls for a radical rethinking of the role of economics and other social sciences. It is a serious failure of social scientists when they solve the wrong problem precisely. This means that the problem formulation is inadequate, which may lead to disastrous consequences for the fate and well-being of the stakeholders. To avoid substantive… Read More »Responsible Social Science in the Age of Economic Crisis

Laszlo Zsolnai ‘The Importance of Meta-economics.’ , in Responsible Economics. E.F. Schumacher and His Legacy for the 21st Century, ed. Hendrik Opdebeeck, Peter Lang Academic Publishers, Oxford, 2013. Meta-economics is the basic assumptions about the subject-matter, value-orientation and methodology of economics. The paper attempts to reconstruct the meta-economic foundation of mainstream economics and that of alternative economics initiated by Schumacher. It shows how the emerging alternative economics transcends the erroneous meta-economic assumptions of mainstream economics by considering the… Read More »The Importance of Meta-economics

Antonio Tencati, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Collaborative Enterprise and Sustainability: The Case of Slow Food.’ Journal of Business Ethics, 2012, vol.110, no. 3, pp. 345-354 The current and prevailing paradigm of intensive agricultural production is a straightforward example of the mainstream way of doing business. Mainstream enterprises are based on a negativistic view of human nature that leads to counter-productive and unsustainable behaviours producing negative impact for society and the natural environment. If we want to change the course,… Read More »Collaborative Enterprise and Sustainability: The Case of Slow Food

Luk Bouckaert, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Spirituality and Business: An Interdisciplinary Overview.’ Society and Economy, 2012, vol.34, no. 3, pp. 489-514 We believe that business ethics needs a more spiritual foundation to solve the business ethics failure. Why? Because spirituality – as an inner experience of deep interconnectedness with all living beings – opens a space of distance from the pressures of the market and the routines of business as usual. This distance is a necessary condition for developing… Read More »Spirituality and Business: An Interdisciplinary Overview