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Article
Publication date: 9 January 2017

Edward John O’Boyle

The purpose of this paper is to examine the writings of Joseph Schumpeter on economic man to demonstrate that Schumpeter is a precursor of personalist economics.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the writings of Joseph Schumpeter on economic man to demonstrate that Schumpeter is a precursor of personalist economics.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper addresses two intertwined questions. What evidence supports the claim that Schumpeter rejected homo economicus? What evidence indicates that Schumpeter actually embraced the human person – the acting person – as a replacement for homo economicus? The evidence is presented in four sections: Schumpeter’s rejection of homo economicus; Schumpeter on economic agency; Schumpeter, a precursor of personalist economics; and final remarks.

Findings

As to the first question, there is no doubt that Schumpeter rejected homo economicus. Regarding the second, the evidence does not indicate that Schumpeter proposed replacing homo economicus with what today we refer to as the acting person. This paper concludes that by insisting on the critical role of the active, spontaneous, and eager-to-initiate change entrepreneur in economic affairs and our understanding of those affairs Schumpeter was a precursor of personalist economics.

Originality/value

To a large extent Schumpeter’s insights regarding economic agency and William Waters role in interpreting those insights have been buried in the economics literature. It was Waters in 1952 who stated that Schumpeter identified the inadequacy of economic man as the efficient cause of economic activity and re-established the human person as the true efficient cause, principally in terms of entrepreneurship.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 44 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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Article
Publication date: 12 June 2007

Edward J. O'Boyle

To demonstrate that person and the philosophy of personalism are more relevant to contemporary economic affairs than individual and the philosophy of individualism.

597

Abstract

Purpose

To demonstrate that person and the philosophy of personalism are more relevant to contemporary economic affairs than individual and the philosophy of individualism.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper addresses two tasks. First, it provides a sketch of what it means to approach economic affairs from the perspective of person and personalism versus individual and individualism. Second, it traces the origins of personalist economics to Aristotle, Aquinas, and Smith, shows why personalist economics departs from mainstream economics, and how it is linked to Weber and Walras principally through Schumpeter.

Findings

This paper provides a schematic showing that personalist economics originates with Aristotle, Aquinas, and Smith without embracing the individualism of the Enlightenment and a timeline that connects the three stages of human communication – oral/aural, script, and electronic – to the evolution of economics since the Enlightenment.

Research limitations/implications

This paper challenges mainstream economics to consider the adequacy of individual/individualism in an age where it is self‐evident that human beings are not autonomous individuals.

Practical implications

The individual as the basic unit of economic analysis is a creature born of the individualism of the script stage. The person as the basic unit of economic analysis was born of the personalism of the electronic stage and, therefore, is much better suited to economic analysis in an age of economic globalization.

Originality/value

The integration of work on human communication with the way in which economists should be thinking about contemporary economic affairs.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 34 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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Article
Publication date: 22 February 2011

Edward J. O'Boyle, Stefano Solari and Gian Demetrio Marangoni

The purpose of this paper is to present the argument that in principle any company can become a good company by adopting certain characteristics which define the good in

1985

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the argument that in principle any company can become a good company by adopting certain characteristics which define the good in enterprise affairs and affirm and reinforce everyone with a stake in the company – managers, workers, suppliers, customers, and communities where it operates – in addition to its owners.

Design/methodology/approach

To identify the characteristics of the good company the paper turns to Catholic social teaching, with its traditional emphasis on the importance of practising virtue in worldly affairs. In this regard, the paper relies heavily on the writings and public statements of Pope John Paul II, who addressed these matters with great clarity and insight.

Findings

In its research the paper finds eight characteristics by which the good company can be identified and which, if embraced by the leadership of a willing and committed enterprise, can help to transform it into a good company. Each of the eight is addressed in some detail.

Originality/value

The paper examines a vast body of writings that, according to Catholic social teaching, identify the good in enterprise affairs. One of the eight characteristics, personalist capital, advances the proposal that the good company routinely maximizes virtue among its stakeholders and thereby enhances its own profitability because the virtuous person is the more effective economic agent.

Details

Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-0701

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Article
Publication date: 1 July 1995

Edward J. O’Boyle and Meade P. O’Boyle

Draws parallels between the contemporary community hospital and thetraditional agricultural commons. Identifies four principal attributesof common field agriculture and matches…

447

Abstract

Draws parallels between the contemporary community hospital and the traditional agricultural commons. Identifies four principal attributes of common field agriculture and matches them to contemporary arrangements in the management of the facilities of the community hospital. Points to several notable parallels between the modern workplace and the contemporary, natural resource commons. Hypothesizes that, as the post‐medieval sea change of social values transformed agriculture – most dramatically by the enclosure of the commons – so a sea change in values today is changing health care, inviting the recent wave of mergers and acquisitions reminiscent of the enclosing of the commons.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 22 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 2012

Edward O'Boyle and Meade O'Boyle

The purpose of this paper is to address the global dimensions of poverty, hunger, death, and disease.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the global dimensions of poverty, hunger, death, and disease.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors assemble the most recently available data on these four human scourges from reliable international sources.

Findings

Reducing the higher incidence of poverty, hunger, death, and disease in sub‐Saharan African countries depends critically on the extension of four revolutions – biological, intellectual, political, and scientific‐technological.

Originality/value

The paper selects and interprets these data from the perspectives of economics and paediatrics.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 39 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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Article
Publication date: 1 October 1992

Edward J. O'Boyle

Examines inter‐firm and supra‐firm co‐operation both in principle andin practice. Five cases are presented as examples of inter‐firm or supra‐firmco‐operation in the workplace or…

32

Abstract

Examines inter‐firm and supra‐firm co‐operation both in principle and in practice. Five cases are presented as examples of inter‐firm or supra‐firm co‐operation in the workplace or the marketplace.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 19 no. 10/11/12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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Article
Publication date: 1 October 1986

Edward J. O'Boyle

Conventional economics typically defines the science in terms of such concepts as production, distribution, consumption, resources, goods, services, wealth, prices and efficiency…

59

Abstract

Conventional economics typically defines the science in terms of such concepts as production, distribution, consumption, resources, goods, services, wealth, prices and efficiency. These terms focus attention primarily on things, making it easier to argue that since those things are quantifiable economics is a positive, higher‐order science.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 13 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 1990

Edward J. O'Boyle

The need for work as such, along with physical need, are the twofundamental needs that flow directly from the materiality of humannature. For this reason, these two needs, taken…

76

Abstract

The need for work as such, along with physical need, are the two fundamental needs that flow directly from the materiality of human nature. For this reason, these two needs, taken together, are referred to as human material need. The embodiment of human beings is crucial for both social economics and the social economy, because without embodiment there would be no human material need and without that need there would be no social economy and therefore no social economics. This article proceeds from three main premises: (1) Man is not an object but a person, and for that reason matters much; (2) Work is organised and performed through two main modes conforming to the duality of human nature – these modes are referred to as teamwork and contribution; (3) Work has two main effects on persons conforming also to the duality of human nature – these modes are referred to as individual development and belonging.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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Article
Publication date: 1 December 1993

Edward J. O'Boyle

The conventional wisdom in economics is that resources are limited,wants are unlimited, and the business of the economist is to understandhow limited resources are allocated to…

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Abstract

The conventional wisdom in economics is that resources are limited, wants are unlimited, and the business of the economist is to understand how limited resources are allocated to satisfy unlimited wants. Typically, poverty or unmet physical need is addressed apart from consumer behaviour. It was not always so. Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, and Paul Samuelson as recently as 35 years ago, for example, were explicit about the direct linkage between needs and wants. The changes that have taken place over the years are attributable to a shift away from an Aristotelian perspective on the nature of economic studies towards the Enlightenment view. Challenges the conventional wisdom that wants are virtually unlimited, resources are limited, and poverty is best addressed apart from wants. Presents need fulfilment alongside want satisfaction in the context of the principle of subsidiarity which helps define the role of the state in provisioning unmet need.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 20 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1993

Edward J. O'Boyle

Addresses customer service and work habits in post‐CommunistPoland, based on seven weeks of observation in 1991. Has two purposes:to warn Westerners about problems in starting or…

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Abstract

Addresses customer service and work habits in post‐Communist Poland, based on seven weeks of observation in 1991. Has two purposes: to warn Westerners about problems in starting or taking control of a Polish business or becoming partners with Polish interests in an established business; and to prod Poland into tearing out the roots of this problem – homo sovieticus – which are deeply embedded in the Polish economic order. Homo sovieticus is a human whose spirit has been systematically destroyed by a system designed by and for Stalin and erected in his name and memory. Customer service in Poland has been influenced by two factors: the shortages of the former command economy and the role of state enterprises as industrial welfare agencies. As to work habits, there is no solidarity among those who labour in the same workplace nor is there any teamwork in the workplace or the marketplace.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

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