Poverty, Prosperity and the Challenges of the Good Company

The articles in this volume originate from papers delivered at the 9th International Conference on Catholic Social Thought and Management Education at De La Salle and Ateneo Universities in Manila, Philippines (February 26–28, 2015). The theme of the conference was “Poverty, Prosperity and the Purpose of Business” within the Catholic social tradition. In attendance were approximately 300 participants representing 22 countries from 80 Catholic colleges and universities. They came from disciplines in management, philosophy, finance, accounting, theology, marketing, economics, and others. There were also leaders from business, many of whom were from the Philippines, who brought their experiences to bear on the conversations. Along with this diversity of education and experience were people of different faith traditions whose moral and spiritual commitments run deep on the importance of mission and identity of Catholic universitie

The Moral Ecology of Good Wealth

This chapter defines “good wealth” in terms of its interdependent and organic relationship among wealth’s creation, distribution and charitable dimensions. The relationship among these three functions of wealth fits well with what Catholic social teaching refers to as “moral ecology.” In terms of wealth creation, business enterprises are the economic engine of society. We also need to speak of wealth distribution, and in particular a just distribution. The third dimension of wealth is its charitable function, in many respects the most excellent of the three functions of wealth. This chapter addresses the tensions and challenges among these three dimensions and points to innovative practices where the three dimensions of good wealth can be integrated

Toward an Integrated Vision of Undergraduate Liberal and Accounting Education in the Public Interest: the Holistic Development of Persons and Institutions

This paper puts forward a vision that integrates liberal and accounting education to engage students with the idea of vocation and pursuit of the common good through their chosen field of accounting. We adopt a common good definition of the public interest that seeks to advance not only the good of institutions and communities (mutual interests) but also the good of individuals (private interests). This approach engages students to critically reflect on how their life experiences, personal commitments, and future professional work can relate to one another. We first discuss disciplinary fragmentation in higher education and its implications for integrating liberal and accounting education. Next, we describe general learning objectives and concepts that support the integration of liberal learning and accounting education with a public interest orientation. We then apply the approach to critique accounting practices that arguably harm the public interest. The concluding section provides a summary and describes how accounting educators may adapt and scale an approach that fits their institutional setting

Enriching Social Entrepreneurship from the Perspective of Catholic Social Teaching

In this paper, we propose that unreflective use of the term social entrepreneurship may perpetuate the idea that “entrepreneurship” is largely a financial and private reality and that this view of entrepreneurship will eventually trivialize or perhaps undermine the important benefits and the real intentions behind the social entrepreneurship movement. We believe that Catholic Social Teaching can shed important light on this dilemma by emphasizing three specific strategies inherent to entrepreneurship when assessing the moral contribution of the firm. As a result, we argue for the principles of good goods, good work and good wealth as an alternative framework for all good entrepreneurial venture

Eliminating Recursion from Monadic Datalog Programs on Trees

We study the problem of eliminating recursion from monadic datalog programs on trees with an infinite set of labels. We show that the boundedness problem, i.e., determining whether a datalog program is equivalent to some nonrecursive one is undecidable but the decidability is regained if the descendant relation is disallowed. Under similar restrictions we obtain decidability of the problem of equivalence to a given nonrecursive program. We investigate the connection between these two problems in more detail

Connecting Religion and Work: Patterns and Influences of Work-Faith Integration

Religiosity can significantly impact human behavior yet little is known about how religious belief and practice integrate with work. Using the Faith at Work Scale, we surveyed Christian workers in the United States (n = 374) and found that work-faith integration was positively associated with faith maturity, church attendance, age and denominational strictness, and negatively associated with organizational size. Denominational groups varied in their degree of integration but displayed similar patterns across dimensions of integration.Work-faith integration was manifest most strongly in integration related to the self, and somewhat less so in areas related to others and in transcendent aspects of work. Respondents attributed spiritual disciplines and workplace mentors as salient influences of work-faith integration. Implications for workplace spirituality scholarship and management are explored

High Efficiency Solar Power via Separated Photo and Voltaic Pathways

This project demonstrates a novel nanostructured solar cell architecture capable of achieving high efficiency levels that is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture. The high efficiency will be achieved by the novel structure that separates the path of the photons from the path of the generated charge carriers. In this way, the photon path can be long for maximum light absorption, while the path for carriers can be short for maximum electronic energy harvesting. The combination of maximum light absorption coupled with maximum carrier harvesting is the basis for the expected high efficiency. The project will develop high efficiency solar cell prototypes utilizing this unique nanostructured architecture. The project addresses the fundamental limitation inherent in all current solar cell designs, and which opens a pathway to development for high efficiency solar cells at low cost. Realizing this goal will result in a levelized cost of electricity in the range of 10¢/kWh, which would achieve the long-sought goal of making photovoltaic electricity cost competitive with fossil-fuel generated electricity without any governmental subsidies. This breakthrough would spur the already rapid growth in the photovoltaic industry to an explosive pace, with significant, widespread benefit to the national economy and the nation’s energy security. The initial target of the program is to develop single-junction solar cells using ultrathin amorphous silicon with the performance approaching that of single crystal silicon cells