Spiritual capital: The co‐evolution of an ethical framework based on Abrahamic religious values in the Islamic tradition

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to investigate how values from within Abrahamic religions could be adopted to improve liberal market economies’ (LMEs’) corporate governance business practices.

Design/methodology/approach

The concept of spiritual capitalism is explained from an Islamic perspective by adopting three universal Abrahamic values to critically analyse LMEs and offer an ethical alternative to current capitalism concerns.

Findings

It is found that LMEs can be improved by considering all stakeholders, putting ethics before economics, and introducing shared risk/reward plus lower debt.

Originality/value

The paper compares LMEs/Co‐ordinated market economies (CMEs)/Islamic countries economies (ICEs) within an ethical framework for LMEs.

Citation

Dsouli, O., Khan, N. and Kakabadse, N.K. (2012), "Spiritual capital: The co‐evolution of an ethical framework based on Abrahamic religious values in the Islamic tradition", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 31 No. 10, pp. 1058-1076. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711211281843