The Value Orientations of Buddhist and Christian Entrepreneurs , 1st ed. 2020 A Comparative Perspective on Spirituality and Business Ethics Studies in Buddhist Economics, Management, and Policy Series

1.      Introduction

This chapter describes the motivations behind writing about the value-orientations of Buddhist and Christian entrepreneurs. It introduces the framework of the research briefly. The research project encompasses four research subdomains. The aim on the first subdomain of the research is to clarify the term ‘spirituality’ in order to give its standardized, substantive definition. The aims on the second subdomain of the research are to explore the constitutive Buddhist and Christian values in business and compare them with each other by applying qualitative comparative analysis. The third subdomain explores the relationship between spiritual and material values in business. The aims of the fourth subdomain are to explore and illustrate with examples the business practices inspired by spiritual (Buddhist or Christian) value-orientations.

The introduction includes a short methodological summary with the descriptions of semi-structured interviews, applied as primary data collection, and document analysis, applied as secondary data collection methods. Furthermore, it introduces the methods of data analysis, which include qualitative content analysis, document analysis, and qualitative comparative analysis.

The introduction concludes with a concise preview of the book’s chapters.

Buddhist and Christian value-orientations in business

2.      Spiritual value-orientation

The first chapter introduces the most important concepts of the investigation, including values, value-orientation, spirituality, spiritual values, spiritual value-orientation, and entrepreneur.

Values are considered as standards, which have persistence through time and provide a way to organize the system of actions. Value-orientation or value-commitment means the observance of certain norms, standards and criteria of selection, which determines the attitude of people in given situations, and guides the choices from available alternatives.

The book uses a broad definition of spirituality. It is understood as people’s multiform search for a deep meaning of life, interconnecting them to all living beings and to ’God’ or ’Ultimate Reality’. Spirituality is one of the determining factors of values and value-orientations. Spiritual values like integrity, compassion, collaboration and responsibility take one beyond his or her own self-interests. Spiritual value-orientation means the observance of some specific spiritual values in decision-making.

An entrepreneur is a businessperson who infuses, mediates values and creates value by economic and business activities. From the standpoint of the book, an entrepreneur can be either the owner of a company or a managerial employee in a bigger organization.

3.      Spirituality in Business

This chapter contains a summary about the development of business spirituality in the field of management studies and management practice. The chapter overviews the history and the deficiencies of business ethics since the 1970s. In doing so, the ethics management paradox is introduced and discussed in details. The ethics management paradox asserts that by introducing ethics management in organizations, ethics is used in a rational and instrumental way, which in turn undermines the intrinsic moral commitment of the agents. The paradox of ethics management implies a paradigm-shift in business ethics, which stresses the importance of a deeper, intrinsic ethical commitment in action. This may help the realization of openness, interconnectedness, altruism and trust.

4.      Buddhist Values in Business

This chapter discusses the most relevant Buddhist values in business, and introduces the most important characteristics of the participating Buddhist entrepreneurs. The main subject is preceded by a short introduction of the corresponding Buddhist teachings in order to orient the readers of the book towards Buddhism and Buddhist economics.

The chapter analyzes the conceptions of Buddhist economics, and presents the basic Buddhist values in business, which are simplicity, non-violence, compassion, wisdom, responsibility, well-being, mindfulness, creativity, interconnectedness.

5.      Christian Values in Business

This chapter presents the basic Christian values in business by analyzing the Catholic Social Teaching (CST) of the Roman Catholic Church. The roots of the Church’s teachings on social issues can be found in the Bible, but since the latter part of the 19th century CST has developed through the publication of numerous documents by the reigning popes and the Magisterium of the Holy See. The chapter summarizes these documents and analyzes the secondary literature of CST on business issues. The values highlighted by the social teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and explored in detail in this chapter are human dignity, truth, justice, solidarity, charity, common good, frugality, trust and responsibility.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BUDDHIST AND CHRISTIAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

6.      Buddhist and Christian Entrepreneurs

This chapter introduces the survey population in detail. The population includes eleven Buddhist and eleven Christian entrepreneurs. Five organizations of Buddhist entrepreneurs operate in the services sector, three in the commercial, one in the industrial and two in the financial sector. Nine organizations of Christian entrepreneurs operate in the services sector, one in logistics and one in the industrial sector. The chapter includes short descriptions of the entrepreneurs in order to make the research population more compelling.

7.      An Entrepreneurial Interpretation of the Term ‘Spirituality’

This chapter introduces the first subdomain of the research which investigates the interpretation of the term ‘spirituality’ among the entrepreneurs to search for a standard, substantive definition for the term. Entrepreneurs interpret the term in different ways, so ‘spirituality’ cannot be described with only one standardized, substantive definition, neither amidst the Buddhist nor the Christian entrepreneurs. The participants interpret the term as interconnectedness or refer to it as a phenomenon that is beyond the material dimension.

8.      Comparative Analysis of Buddhist and Christian Values in Entrepreneurship

This chapter introduces the second subdomain of the research which explores the constitutive values of Buddhist and Christian value-orientations in business. The results show that the value-orientations of the participating Buddhist entrepreneurs in business are described by four irreducible, core values, which are interconnectedness, mindfulness, moderation and compassion. The value-orientations of the participating Christian entrepreneurs in business are described by three irreducible, core values, which are human dignity, justice and solidarity. The concepts, describing the ontological approaches of the spiritual traditions appears in both value-orientations as interconnectedness in the Buddhist value-orientations, and as human dignity in the Christian value-orientations. There are values, appearing in both value-orientations that describe the implementation of business practices, which are moderation and mindfulness in the Buddhist value-orientations, and justice in the Christian value-orientations. On the procedural level, Buddhist value-orientations are more individualistic through the implementation of moderation and mindfulness, but Christian value-orientations are communitarian through the implementation of justice. The values emphasizing the importance of the welfare of others also appear in both traditions: by compassion in the spirit of interconnection in the Buddhist value-orientations, and as solidarity in the Christian value-orientations.

9.      The Relationship of Spiritual and Material Values in Business

10.  Spiritually-inspired Business Practices

This chapter introduces the fourth subdomain of the research which explores spiritually inspired business practices. The intrinsic ethical commitment of entrepreneurs resolves the ethics management paradox and contributes to implementing similar ethical business practices by Buddhist and Christian entrepreneurs. Spiritual value-orientation appears in similar business practices on parallel fields of management: (i) the subjects concerning employees; (ii) the fundamental goal of the enterprise; (iii) the temporal perspectives of business; (iv) the role of the leader; (v) committed stakeholder management; and (vi) the rejection of corruption.

CONCLUSIONS

This final chapter reviews the key findings of the research. It emphasizes that ethics should not be treated as an instrument in the service of profit in order to resolve the paradox of ethics management. The spiritual commitment of the participant entrepreneurs plays out in business by genuine ethical commitment, which confirms the findings of Cornell economist Robert Frank that genuine ethical commitment bring material benefits that cannot be gained by pursuing solely material goals. The chapter identifies the limitations of the work, introduces the generalizability of the findings, and highlights some future research opportunities.

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.

A comparative analysis of the value orientations of Buddhist and Christian entrepreneurs and how these values impact business

Analyzes the concepts of Buddhist economics and the social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church

Includes the reflections of Buddhist and Christian entrepreneurs about business spirituality, profit, the temporal perspectives of business, and stakeholder management