Search results

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate scales measuring two consumer moral preferences: Homo moralis and Homo economicus.

This research includes four sequential studies. Before the first study, items were established through a comprehensive literature review and pre-test. Four studies were then conducted to verify the validity and reliability of the scales following the scale validation methodology suggested by Churchill (1979) and Anand and Kaur (2018). Study 1 employed exploratory factor analysis to extract the underlying factor structure of the scale. This led to a two-factor structure with sufficient evidence of internal reliability. Study 2 and Study 3 were conducted to confirm the reliability and the validity of the scale using confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha. The final study established the predictive validity of the scale using a structural equation model.

Finally, seven items were developed measuring consumers' moral preferences for Homo moralis and Homo economicus.

This research has some limitations that should be addressed in future research. First, the scale was only tested in a Korean context. Second, this study was not conducted in the context of a specific industry.

This study extends the range of research to an empirical field by practically verifying how these two preferences are independent, can be generalized and can influence human behavior. This study empirically demonstrates that the preferences affect human behavior such as purchase intention. This study extends the current knowledge on Homo moralis and Homo economicus by providing a scale for empirical validation of the concepts.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of consumers’ moral preferences between moral and economic benefits and consumers’ moral and rational behaviour intentions based on moral decision-making models of previous studies.

Respondents were asked to answer a questionnaire measuring moral and economic benefits, consumers’ moral preferences and moral and rational behaviour intention after reading a stimulus describing imaginary fashion brand A’s unethical activities.

Moral and economic benefits directly and significantly affect moral and rational behaviour intention. Homo economicus evoked by an economic benefit had a negative effect on moral behaviour intention.

This study focused only on a moral benefit and an economic benefit as factors evoking consumers’ moral preferences. This study was also conducted only in a Korean context and considered a specific industry. In future research, the results of this study should be extended to design the “possibility of punishment” to encourage moral behaviour by discouraging the effect of homo economicus. The results have implications for companies such as social enterprises and charities that want to promote consumers’ moral behaviour.

This study provides evidence on why ethical consumers do not always make ethical decisions by confirming that homo economicus has a significant influence on not only rational behaviour intention but also moral behaviour intention.

The purpose of this paper is to show the limitations and inadequacies of the “Homo Economicus” model of human behaviour in terms of promoting human development and to outline directions for economics to promote “true human development”.

The paper first discusses the concept of “Homo Economicus” and the criticisms of this model. It then explains the ladder of human development as propounded by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. The paper compares the “Homo Economicus” model with this ladder of human development. The economic philosophy of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is then explained to show the proper way ahead. Finally the paper gives future directions for economics to aid in “true human development”.

The paper finds that the “Homo Economicus” model of human behaviour is inadequate and needs to be substituted with a broader framework. The economic philosophy of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba gives clear directions to develop this broader framework.

The paper has practical implications in terms of understanding human development in the proper perspective and the steps that must be taken to move in this direction.

The paper compares the “Homo Economicus” model with the ladder of human development as outlined by Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. The paper is also original because it gives future directions based on the economic philosophy of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

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.

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.

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.

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.

States that the homo economicus abstraction remains dominant in economics, despite a range of criticisms of its use over the years. Many institutionalists, post‐Keynesians, neo‐Austrians and social economists have insisted that economic analysis must be conducted in an explicit historical context, where the difficulties which economic decision‐makers face, because of time irreversibility, structural change and fundamental uncertainty, are taken into account, as well as non‐economic influences on economic behaviour. Understandably, there has been a reluctance to construct a competing abstraction with formal properties which are comparable to those of the homo economicus construct. It is argued in this paper that the development of an alternative behavioural abstraction constitutes an important goal, both in terms of clarifying the limitations of homo economicus and providing an analytical basis upon which investigations of economic behaviour in historical time can be built.

The awarding in October of 2002 of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics 1 Technically the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, established in 1968.1 to Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith might have profound implications for the survival of Homo economicus, which has long occupied a privileged place in the minds of economists and decision-making theorists. The species has endured many challenges and proven quite adaptable, changing to accommodate a cascade of findings inconsistent with its original conception. Homo economicus now faces a potentially more serious challenge: the resurgence of Homo sapiens, a more coherent and biologically grounded model for human decision-making, informed by theory and data from across the scientific spectrum.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive classification of quid pro quo exchange transactions, so as to distinguish the different ways that desired exchange outcomes can be determined and that transactional processes can be conducted. This permits reflection on the generality of the theory of the individual embedded in neoclassical (orthodox) economics.

The approach adopted is to draw upon the contending dichotomies in epistemology (naturalism or hermeneutics) and ontology (agency or structure) to demarcate and depict a set of Weberian archetypal social actors, so as to explore their cognitions and behaviors in a transactional arena. These archetypal social actors are hypothetical role-playing actors – they do not describe real people.

These archetypal social actors, collectively, are suggestive of the profuseness of ways people can engage in exchange transactions. Each archetype’s credibility is contingent upon the veracity of its ontological and epistemological standpoints. Each, indeed, has blindspots that permit the denied standpoints to be ignored without analytical detriment. None can, therefore, claim the status of a general theory of exchange process.

The paper’s originality is that it explores exchange transactions from a variety of epistemological and ontological perspectives.

The paper aims to revive the Islamic economic system discourse given the increasing interest in the moral economy agenda.

Proponents of Islamic economics theorise that the Islamic system presents the ideal form of a socio-economic order. However, the reported huge gap between theoretical construct and real activities seems to support the critics’ claim that it is a mere utopian state that directly challenges the viability of the Islamic economy idea.

The fact of the matter is that homo economicus is overpowering homo Islamicus despite the presupposed position of homo Islamicus as the mainstay of Islamic economics.

To manifest the Islamic economic system notion further, it is argued that a shariah-based values infusion policy (VIP) needs to be formulated to actualise the predominance of homo Islamicus.

Owing to the overarching and holistic nature of the proposed public policy, the operations of individuals, firms and state agencies should have the tendency to reflect the expected behaviour of homo Islamicus better than the present state of affairs.

The success of the VIP would include the enhancement of social integration and cohesion.

The link between moral economy, homo Islamicus and public policy is clearly established. Thus, this research guides policy makers in promoting the Islamic economic system as a universally-aspired moral economy project.

This paper aims to systematically review the concept of homo Islamicus discussed in the existing literature. The second objective is to offer a set of criticisms of the descriptions of homo Islamicus.

In this paper prespecified eligibility criteria are applied to select articles that are indexed in Scopus and ProQuest, or published by two major publishers, ScienceDirect and Emerald, or appear on ResearchGate. A set of books related to homo Islamicus was also used as secondary sources to support the selected articles. As a result, this paper systematically reviews 53 articles and four books to synthesize the homo Islamicus.

There are four notions of homo Islamicus: Firstly, homo Islamicus as the kind of economic agent that is required to achieve Islamic economic objectives. Secondly, homo Islamicus as a defining factor that makes the difference between Islamic and conventional economics. Thirdly, homo Islamicus as an economic agent whose characteristics are something Islamic economics aims to realize. Lastly, homo Islamicus as an economic agent representing the fundamental assumption in Islamic economics.

Mapping homo Islamicus can be helpful for future researchers to conduct analyses related to homo Islamicus, especially in the context of empirical studies of the existence of homo Islamicus in economic reality. This literature review can help other researchers to understand the development of literature related to homo Islamicus.

This paper seems to be the first to systematically identify, select and synthesize the description of homo Islamicus in the literature.

Two metaphors of human motivation have dominated justice theory and research: homo economicus (people as rational utility maximizers) and homo socialis (people as status and social value maximizers). This chapter reviews theory and research inspired by a recent third perspective: homo moralis, that is, people as innately concerned about morality. When people have strong moral convictions at stake, their perceptions of outcome fairness and decision acceptance are shaped more by whether outcomes are consistent with perceivers’ moral priorities than by whether authorities act in procedurally fair ways; moreover, whether authorities yield morally correct outcomes shapes subsequent perceptions of the legitimacy of these authorities or authority systems. Emotion plays an important role in both of these effects.