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The purpose of this paper is to address financialization in the light of Catholic social teaching (CST) and investigate the issues surrounding corporate governance and the impact that the priority of shareholder value poses for achieving ethical outcomes in routine economic interactions.

The approach ventures beyond an accounting of the enormous costs of the recent global collapse of financial markets in search of an ethical evaluation as to how this all came about. The ethical evaluation proceeds along two tracks: individual action and system of rules.

Six suggestions as to how to reconcile what is known from CST and what is observed in everyday economic affairs have been offered.

The paper is limited to reconciling financialization and issues of corporate governance with CST.

The practical desirability and the ethical goodness of a financialized system are commented on and the paper contributes to a better understanding of the origins of the financial market collapse.

The global collapse of financial markets linked to the introduction of new financial products in which the return is emphasized and the risk glossed over provides a unique opportunity to contribute to the dialogue on what needs to be done to address the broader problem of financialization.

The objective of this study is to formulate a model for forecasting the performance of firms in terms of trends in turnover, investments, exports, employment and flexibility, and to identify the principal correlations with selected dependent variables, such as the level of computerization, the extent of collaboration with competitors and the characteristics of the product.

This paper analyses data, which refers to a survey conducted on a sample of 89 firms from the Treviso province in the north east of Italy by using the Logit model.

From the application of the logit models it emerges that the most important variables contributing to the economic success of the firms are technological flexibility, collaboration, with competitors, and investments in certain areas such as research and development, marketing and fixed technology. Moreover, the findings show that the factors which contribute most significantly to technological flexibility (a key factor for the growth of the firm) are flexibility to demand, the level of computerization and staff training.

From the application of logit models it emerges that the most important variables influencing the good performance of firms are flexibility in keeping pace with technology, collaboration with competitors, and the choice of certain types of investment. Moreover, the variables which contribute most to greater flexibility are investments in human capital and in information technology, as well website use, the technological characteristics of the product and the firm's flexibility in following the demand trend.

In this study logit models are analysed from both a theoretical and applied point of view.

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.

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.

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.

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.