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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation of spirituality and creativity in business context.

The paper presents practical examples of spiritual-based creative business models in different faith traditions (Hinduism, Christianity and Anthroposophy).

Spirituality and a deep sense of connectedness are essential to enhance creativity and care in business. Spirituality creates free space and openness to allow the future to emerge organically. It creates a distance between the self and the pressures of the market and the routines of business and daily life. This distance is a necessary condition for developing creative, ethical and responsible solutions to the complex challenges around us.

Spiritually inspired creative business models overcome the instrumental rationality and materialistic orientation of today’s business management which produces large scale ecological, social and ethical “ills.” The paper shows that alternative business management practices need a spiritual foundation to be more creative and caring.

Business activities considerably affect the fate and survival of natural ecosystems as well as the life conditions of present and future generations. Applying the imperative of responsibility developed by Jonas states that business has a one way, non‐reciprocal duty caring for the beings which are affected by its functioning. To meet its global responsibilities business should become sustainable, pro‐social and future‐enhancing.

In our technological age business is one of the greatest destroyers of the natural environment. At present, we do not have any appropriate theory of business that would be consistent with ecology, that is, contains a well‐articulated ecological point of view. This article is an attempt to meet this need.

The encyclical letter of Pope Francis, “Praised Be: On the Care of Our Common Home” (Laudato si’), presented an excellent opportunity to spark a conversation between economics and faith-based discourses on sustainability. The encyclical underlined the human origins of the ecological crisis and proposed fundamental changes in organizing our economic life. Among the important suggestions put forward by the Pope are increased frugality in consumption and acknowledging the intrinsic value of nature.

Frugality implies rebalancing the spiritual and material values in economic life. This may lead to the rehabilitation of the substantive meaning of the “economic” and the revival of the corresponding logic of sufficiency. Despite their different ontological and anthropological conceptions, the ecological position of the Pope’s encyclical has close links with Deep Ecology and Buddhist Economics. Both Deep Ecology and Buddhist Economics point out that emphasizing individuality and promoting the greatest fulfillment of the desires of the individual together lead to destruction. Happiness is linked to wholeness, not to personal wealth.

Mainstream economics fails to acknowledge the intrinsic value of nature. It is happy to put value on environmental goods and services merely on the basis of a market value determined by competing economic actors. But price, for sure, is an inappropriate model for assessing the value of natural entities. There is no algorithmic solution to nature’s allocation problems. Decisions and policies related to nature require making qualitative and multiperspective considerations and the proper use of our wisdom, knowledge, and experience.

This chapter aims to help redirect Business and Society (BAS) scholarship to embrace the unprecedented challenges of the Anthropocene era including climate collapse and ecological breakdown. The existential risk presented by the new reality of the Anthropocene requires a radical rethinking of the purpose of business and its dominating working models. This chapter discusses the main problems of efficiency and growth and shows that business efficiency often results in aggregate ecological overshot. It is argued with Herman Daly that frugality, that is, substantial reduction of the material throughput, should precede business efficiency for achieving ecological sustainability. This chapter suggests new directions for BAS scholarship by highlighting three major issues, namely the scale of business activities relative to the ecosystem of the planet, short termism that is the discrepancy between the time horizon of business decisions and that of ecological processes, and inequality which is the result of current business models that are all about accumulation of wealth and not paying enough attention to distribution of wealth. The chapter concludes that the Anthropocene era represents a clear disjuncture and discontinuity from the past and business needs to find a new realignment to achieve a sustainable world. That realignment requires a drastic modification of business-nature relations.

Focuses on the basic concepts and principles of alternative economics; a new doctrine of economic thought centred around human communities and their natural environments. The ideas of Karl Polanyi, Ernst F. Schumacher, and Herman E. Daly are presented as the most important antecedents. Considering the economy as multiple interplay among natural ecosystems, economic organizations and human communities, alternative economics tries to find ways in which economies could have been made more ecologically benign and humane. Demonstrates the practical relevance of alternative economics to two fields: first, the responsibility problematics of economizing and, second, the question of how to form economic policies which serve real development.

Today business, especially mainstream global business, seems to be at war with society and nature. Striving for profit and competitiveness, mainstream business produces monetary results at the expense of nature, society and future generations. With its exclusive focus on profit-making, mainstream businesses violates the integrity and diversity of natural ecosystems, the autonomy and culture of local communities and the chance that future generations will lead a decent life.

We should go beyond the market metaphysics of mainstream business and adopt a more substantive way of economic activities. The substantive meaning of the economy – as Karl Polanyi pointed out – stems from human beings’ patent dependence for their livelihood upon nature and their fellow beings. Humans survive by virtue of an institutionalised interaction between their communities and the natural environment.

If we want to sustain the Human–Earth system for a long time, we need a radical transformation of business. This requires that economic actors have the intrinsic motivation to serve the greater good and are ready to measure success using broader value categories than money alone. Without these motivational and institutional changes business cannot become a peace agent. Instead, it will generate more conflict and violence.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the crisis of the business profession and the role that management education can play in renewing business management. It is argued that unless future managers demonstrate that they serve the common good in their daily practice, the legitimacy and moral standing of the business profession remain questionable.

The paper presents the Masters in International Management Program of CEMS – Global Alliance in Management Education as a pioneering example of developing reflective and responsible managers.

The future manager is defined as a reflexive practitioner who is committed to environmental sustainability, exercises social responsibility, works with sensitivity toward gender and diversity issues, harmonizes information and communications technologies with processes and organizational culture, applies holistic perspective in problem solving, cooperates with social and political actors, and is engaged in progressive entrepreneurship.

The paper shows that responsibility can be successfully integrated into a global management education curriculum.