The Value Orientations of Buddhist and Christian Entrepreneurs: A Comparative Perspective on Spirituality and Business Ethics
by Gábor Kovács (Author)

About the Author
Gábor Kovács is assistant professor at the Business Ethics Center at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. He completed his PhD studies in 2017, and received his master’s degree in Buddhist studies from the Budapest Buddhist University in 2010. He has been secretary of the Hungarian Bhutan Friendship Society since its foundation in 2011. He has been a member of the Pali Translation Group, whose goal is to translate the Pali Buddhist Scriptures from the Pali Canon into the Hungarian language, since 2008. He has also been a member of the European SPES (Spirituality in Economics and Society) Institute since 2010.

About this book
This book is  a comparative analysis of the value orientations of Buddhist and Christian entrepreneurs and how these values impact business. The chapters review and analyze the concepts of Buddhist economics and the social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. The value orientations of Buddhist and Christian entrepreneurs are described by irreducible core values that correspond to the ontological conception, the procedural dimension, and the “other directedness” of a spiritual value commitment in business.

The book includes the reflections of Buddhist and Christian entrepreneurs about business spirituality, profit, the temporal perspectives of business, and stakeholder management. The cases testify that a spiritual value orientation can contribute to creating genuine ethical commitment. The findings and the examples can encourage business scholars and practitioners to stop considering ethics as an instrument in the service of profit and serve as inspiration for integrating spirituality into business in a profound way.

This book will be of interest to scholars studying business ethics, workplace spirituality and faith at work.

Brief Contents
1 Introduction 1
    1.1 The Applied Research Methodology 3
    1.2 The Study Participants 5
    1.3 A Concise Preview of Chapters and Research Questions 13
    1.4 Some Concluding Remarks 16
2 Basic Concepts 19
    2.1 Value and Value Orientation 19
    2.2 Spirituality 26
    2.3 Spiritual Values and the Spiritual Value Orientation 42
    2.4 Entrepreneur 48
    2.5 Summary 52
3 Business Spirituality 61
    3.1 A Brief History of Business Ethics, and the Paradox of Ethics Management 62
    3.2 A Brief History of Business Spirituality 66
    3.3 The Concept of Business Spirituality 70
    3.4 The Features and Outcomes of Business Spirituality 73
4 Buddhist Values in Business 95
    4.1 The Relevant Teachings of Buddhism 97
    4.2 The Conceptions of Buddhist Economics 105
    4.3 The Relevant Set of Buddhist Values for Business 134
5 Christian Values in Business 145
    5.1 The Social Teachings of the Roman Catholic Church 147
    5.2 The Relevant Set of Christian Values for Business 183
6 A Comparative Analysis of Buddhist and Christian Value Orientations in Business 195
    6.1 The Typologies of Buddhist Value Orientations 200
    6.2 The Typologies of Christian Value Orientations 210
    6.3 A Comparative Analysis of Buddhist and Christian Value Orientations 220
    6.4 Conclusions 242
7 Spirituality and Materialism in Business 249
    7.1 Material Values in Business 250
    7.2 The Relationship Between Spirituality and Materialism in Business 260
    7.3 Summary 275
8 Spiritually Inspired Business Practices 281
    8.1 General Reflections on Business Spirituality 282
    8.2 Reflections on the Temporal Perspectives of Business 286
    8.3 Committed Stakeholder Management 288
    8.4 Setting an Example 305
    8.5 Summary 307
9 Conclusions and Way Forward 311
Index 317

Series: Studies in Buddhist Economics, Management, and Policy
Pages: 328
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st ed. 2020 edition (September 27, 2020)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 3030467023
ISBN-13: 978-3030467029