Value and spirituality centricity in the economy 

Creating value for a sustainable world and other projects 

The aim of one of the main projects of the Business Ethics Centre is to collect and analyse economic, business and social models for sustainable value creation around the world. The starting point of the project “Value Creation for a Sustainable World” is that stakeholders are not only interested in wealth creation, but also in the regeneration of natural systems and the well-being of present and future generations.  

For example, they examine innovative initiatives such as social entrepreneurship, ethical and sustainable banks, organic agriculture and community business models. They also look at business entrepreneurship, sustainable human communities, initiatives that respect the rights of animals and ecosystems, and well-being initiatives that affect different cities and countries. The project also aims to link academic actors with civil society experts and to promote intercultural knowledge sharing. The project participants are members of staff from a number of universities, while the key partners are the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, Montreal and Penn State University. 

The other project of the Centre is also linked to an international initiative. Between 2022 and 2023, the International Society of Business, Economics, and Ethics (ISBEE) conducts a global survey on business ethics, for which the Corvinus staff prepares the report on Hungary. The survey addresses, among other issues, the rights of business and economic stakeholders, ecological sustainability, digital transformation and corruption. 

Active international activities 

The members of the Corvinus Business Ethics Centre staff gave seven presentations at prestigious international conferences around the world in 2022. They have also co-organised five international events, contributing to the building of an international network of academic contacts based on values and spirituality. 

For example, the “Friends of Bhutan” conference participants could listen to presentations on the value-based economy, education and sport in Budapest in September 2022. The Business Ethics Centre was one of the organising partners of the conference.  Also important was the “Slow Life – Slow Business” workshop in March, organised with the support of the Ludwig Museum and UNESCO by the INC Nancy Business School in connection with the “slow movement”. 

Among the events abroad, the workshop held in Assisi, Italy, was part of the programme The Economy of Francesco, initiated by Pope Francis and organised by the Business Ethics Centre. In collaboration with the Columbia University of New York and the European SPES Institute, the Centre also organised the first Awakened Campus Global conference. The event, initiated by Professor Lisa Miller, aims to connect higher education institutions internationally that integrate spirituality into their activities.   

Indian spirituality in management from a global perspective 

Spirituality is almost incompatible with today’s overly materialistic economics. The book Global Perspectives on Indian Spirituality and Management published in 2022 offers new perspectives in this area. This book, produced by the Business Ethics Centre in collaboration with Indian partners, explores how an Indian spiritual perspective can enrich our understanding of economics. The book shows that the dominant understanding of economic rationality i.e., the individualistic, self-interest-maximising one, can be replaced by a much broader one. In this way, renowned experts of the subject pay tribute to the work of S. K. Chakraborty, late professor of the Indian Institute of Management – Calcutta, who pioneered the link between management, human values and the Indian ethos.  

The essays in the book explore how and to what extent spiritually inspired business models can be applied in the Western and Indian context. In the first part, the editors of the book, Sanoy Mukherjee, Associate Professor of the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong, and László Zsolnai, Professor of Corvinus University, Head of the Business Ethics Centre, present what ancient Indian wisdom means for the West. Then, Indian, American, Australian and European authors analyse the links between business ethics and management, business models, spiritual leadership, education, society and spirituality. The book is available on the website of Springer Publisher 

In addition to this volume, a number of English-language publications by the Centre’s staff were published in 2022. Jácint Farkas, a researcher, has joined them as a new staff member. The details can be found in the Business Ethics Centre’s annual report.