Social Business, Business as if People Mattered: Variations on a Theme by Schumacher (1973)

Michael Baker
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Michael Baker: Department of Marketing, University of Strathclyde, 130 Rottenrow, Glasgow G4 0GE, UK

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: Economic growth is promoted as the solution to enhance the standard of living of the third of the world’s population living below the poverty line. Such growth, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is unsustainable and predicated on increased production/consumption without sufficient consideration of what is consumed by whom. In essence this is because GDP is a mechanistic measure of quantity that ignores individual human welfare or quality-of-life. To rectify this, affluent consumers need to learn that materialism and selfish self-interest are unsustainable, whereas enlightened self-interest, as assumed by Adam Smith when promoting capitalism and free markets, will benefit everyone. “Social Business” and marketing are proposed as practices that will facilitate this transformation.

Keywords: economic growth; sustainability; self-interest; capitalism and “social business” (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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