Search results

This paper aims to argue that markets need a foundation of morality to promote the long-run success of an economy.

Three types of ethical theories are discussed and compared with what the sacred scriptures of Islam and Christianity say and with what economic theory says. Examples from China are provided.

Markets need morality.

There are more religions in the world than just Islam and Christianity; however, space limitations force me to only consider those two religions. Furthermore, there are more countries in the world than just China. However, space limitations force me to only pull examples from China.

Economists should recognize that markets need morality, and they should start teaching that to their students.

If markets are built on a foundation of ethics, then society prospers. In the absence of that foundation, societies falter. When a government, business and religious institutions see each other as complementary forces, then ethics can evolve.

The author knows of no other studies that explain the three types of ethical theories, compares those theories to what the sacred scriptures of Islam and Christianity say and to what economic theory says, and then uses examples from China to illustrate the need for morality.

Peace is a very precious commodity. It is being concealed by a number of other goals. All the great living religions‐revealed or non‐revealed are strongly committed to peace. This is even more true for the three Abrahamic faiths‐Judaism, Christianity and finally Islam. Unfortunately, the history of world events during last few decades attests to the fact that there exist more suspicions, distrusts, enmity, hatred and anger among the believers belonging to these three faiths than the others. The reason being the primary goals pertaining to political, socio‐cultural and economic pursued by the Christian‐dominated West are predominated by the goal of supremacy and domination and not of coexistence and cooperation. In pursuing these goals the Christian including the Jewish dominated West are pursuing the philosophy of moneytheism, liberalism, modernism and secularism. The Muslims living either in their own lands or in the West being the victims of their own despotic and autocratic rulers and their Western sympathisers are forced to take recourse to equally unjust methods branded as terrorism. Having realised the need for peaceful coexistence, this paper advocates for a thorough transformation as far as the basic goals are concerned. In order to achieve this, the existing academic, cultural and religious institutions and media need to undergo transformation based on an acceptable moral education on behaviours, norms and practices.

Capitalism, religion and science (including calculative sciences such as accounting) have a long and turbulent relationship that, today, is manifest in the “War on Terror”. As social ideologies, religion and science have played a sometimes decisive influence in the history of capitalism. What can one learn from these past encounters to better understand their relationship today? This paper explores the historical origins of this relationship as a struggle over the ideals of the Enlightenment: – as decline of the modern and the rise of the postmodern. The paper begins by tracing the evolution of Christianities and their different potentials in both resisting and accommodating the extant social order. Islam, in contrast, has,until recently, enjoyed a relatively sheltered existence from capitalism, and today, some factions present a militant stance against the market and the liberal democratic state. Overall, the Enlightenment and modernist projects are judged to be jeopardy – a condition fostered by orthodox economics and accounting ideology, where it is now de rigueur to divide the secular from the non‐secular, the normative from the positive, and the ethical from the pragmatic or realist. Finally, the mechanisms behind this Enlightenment regression are examined here using literary analysis, as a modest prelude to developing a new politics for a progressive accounting; one that seeks to restore the integrity and probity of the Enlightenment Ideal.

The unity of Divine Law is reflected in monotheistic faiths having their origin with Prophet Abraham (pbuh), but later divided into three major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. There is a unity of Divine practice in a variety of areas among these monotheistic faiths. One such area is Zakah, in Islamic tradition, and often characterized as “the poor due” in Christianity and Judaism. By whatever name, Zakah or “the poor due,” is an important Divine institution in all three monotheistic faiths. The purpose of this paper is to trace and examine the development of the Zakah institution and Zakah type coverage in those faiths.

First, the paper provides a brief description of the meaning and objectives of Zakah (the poor due) and the group of people who have been described as worthy to receive Zakah. Additional sections trace the development of Zakat (the poor due) in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Finally, some conclusions are presented for the consideration of the reader.

The administration and process for distribution of Zakah in contemporary Muslim states varies depending on the school of Islamic thought most prevalent in that society and the level of theocratic involvement of the government in those societies.

This paper usefully examines the development of the Zakah institution and Zakah type coverage in the three monotheistic faiths.

The subject of Jihad has been a fiercly debated topic in the past few decades. Contradictory translations have been adopted by differing religious groups and political camps. In some quarters Jihad has been associated with violence and war. Other quarters perceive the Jihad to mean a striving within oneself and the struggle for self‐improvement. In this paper, the historical and contemporary perspectives of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam regarding Jihad are outlined. The evolution of the meaning of Jihad in each religion is clarified and similarities and dissimilarities among the three religions are highlighted. Various forms of Jihad are presented. The paper, however, argues that true Jihad means an active participation in social improvement and economic development. In addition, the paper provides implications of Jihad for business and organizations.

Religious tourism is a form of tourism where people of a particular faith travel to visit places of religious significance in their faith. Previous research into the various aspects of religious and spiritual tourism (RST) has been noticeably extended. The purpose of this study is to perform systematic mapping to provide trends and classification regarding the recent publications in the area of RST.

This study collected 181 papers from five scientific databases, from which 122 were selected to be classified according to six properties: research type, research focus, research method, investigated religion, publication type and time.

The analysis of these data resulted in a map of the research field, which was presented under three perspectives: the distribution and trends over time of each classification property and the relationship between them. Besides the visual map, the full list of classified papers is available. The results showed that the number of publications is increasing every year, which shows a growing interest in this field. Moreover, the primary research focuses were destination, demand and marketing. Top three journals were found to be International Journal of Tourism Research, Tourism Recreation Research and Journal of Heritage Tourism. Furthermore, evaluation research, solution proposals and opinion papers were the main research types in the area. In addition, the majority of studies focused on Christianity and Islam. Finally, survey, discussion paper, interview and case study were the predominantly used research methods.

The mapping study delivers the first systematic summary of RST research.

In a constantly changing and increasingly globalized world, religion still plays a significant role in influencing social and consumer behavior. This study will analyze what influence religion and intensity of belief has on attitudes towards the advertising of particular controversial products and services. A questionnaire was distributed to 1,393 people across six different countries and resulting in samples of four main religious groups. The results indicated some statistically significant differences between the groups, which can have important implications for global marketers.

While technical environment starts from western culture which is mainly based on Christianity, the associated ethical concern of the operation of technology can be varied depending on the sociotechnical environment and/or organizational culture. Ethical standards – irrespective of religions – can be used to govern the appropriate behaviors of employees in technical environment. Religions, on the other hand can also act as an apparatus of good ethical motivation that can guide individuals in society/environment. Different religions might use different apparatus(s) to define the good code of ethics. This chapter shows similarities in the ethical teaching dictated by different holy books (mainly Islam, Judaism, and Christianity). The reason is to generalize that religion, as an apparatus of ethics, can be a factor toward ethical behavior supporting the man-made code of ethics in organizations which can also lead to support the definition of the proposed framework ethical behaviors.

Comparison between verses from holy books shows similarities in ethical dimension between religions (mainly Islam and Christianity). After showing the similarities, this chapter proposes a framework of ethical behaviors (FEB) to measure employees’ ethical standards in specific organization where technical environment like cloud computing was used as an example in this chapter.

Verses from both holy books (Quran and Bible–inclusive of the old testament) shows similarities in ethical standards. This similarity considered as a component toward the proposed framework for ethical behaviors in organizations where religion can be an important factor in multi-national, multi-cultural type of organizations. The proposed FEB can be used to identify possible environmental factors acting as moderators while religion and family values acting as mediators toward behaving ethically within technical environment.

The proposed framework can be used as a guide to identify ethical versus unethical employees where a mechanism to measure is proposed. Religious standard concluded out of the similarity section was used as a component of this framework.

The added value of utilizing good religious-based ethical standards is that employees/IT professionals will have an internal drive (on the top of corporate ethical standards) toward ethical behavior in such environment.

This paper reviews the Ten Commandments (TCs) in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It investigates work ethics in the three religions. In addition, the paper examines the meaning and implications of the TCs in each faith. Ethical and social considerations are addressed. It is argued that the TCs set the moral rules and foundations for individuals and groups. TCs, however, should be regarded as general moral guidelines for personal and business conduct.