The moral foundation of capitalism should be reconsidered. Modern capitalism is
disembedded from the social and cultural norms of society and produced a deep financial,
ecological and social crisis. Competitiveness is the prevailing ideology of today’s business
and economic policy. Companies, regions, and national economies seek to improve their
productivity and gain competitive advantage. But these efforts often produce negative effects
on various stakeholders at home and abroad. Competitiveness involves self-interest and
aggressivity and produces monetary results at the expense of nature, society and future
generations
The collaborative enterprise framework promotes a view in which economic agents care about
others and themselves and aim to create values for all the participants in their business
ecosystems. Their criterion of success is mutually satisfying relationships with the
stakeholders. New results of positive psychology and the Homo reciprocans model of
behavioral sciences support this approach.
The economic teachings of world religions challenge the way capitalism is functioning, and
their corresponding perspectives are worthy of consideration. They represent life-serving
modes of economizing which can assure the livelihood of human communities and the
sustainability of natural ecosystems.
Ethics and the future of capitalism are strongly connected. If we want to sustain capitalism for
a long time we have to create a less violent, more caring form of it