Prof. Dr. André Habisch, Professor for Christian Social Ethics - overview of all his publications

The ancient virtue of practical wisdom has lately been enjoying a remarkable renaissance in management literature. The purpose of this article is to add clarity and bring synergy to the interdisciplinary debate. In a review of the wide-ranging field of the existing literature from a philosophical, theological, psychological, and managerial perspective, we show that, although different in terms of approach, methodologies, and justification, the distinct traditions of research on practical wisdom can indeed complement one another. We suggest a conciliatory conception of the various features of practical wisdom in management. This we take as a point of departure for a discussion of the significant implications of the subject for the theory and practice of management and for the direction of further research in the field.

The Encyclical-Letter Caritas in Veritate by Pope Benedict XVI suggests to advance towards a new conceptualization of the tenuous relationship between economics and ethics, proposing a “new humanistic synthesis.” Where social encyclicals have traditionally justified policy proposals by natural law and theological reasoning alone, Caritas in Veritate gives great relevance to economic arguments. The encyclical defines the framework for a new business ethics which appreciates allocative and distributive efficiency, and thus both markets and institutions as improving the human condition, but locates their source and reason outside the economic sphere. It places a clear accent on the ontological connectedness of the economic and ethical dimensions of human action. It is the proper ordering of means towards the end of integral human development that allows mankind to leave a vicious circle of consumerism and enter a virtuous circle that applies the creativity fostered by markets. This vision implies a new model of business management that integrates considerations of vocation, purpose, and values at a theological level.

Socially responsible business and ethical behaviour of companies have been of interest to academia and practice for decades. But the focus has almost exclusively been on large corporations while small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) have not received as much attention. Thus, this paper focuses on socially responsible business practices of SME entrepreneurs or owner–managers in Germany. Based on the assumption that decision-makers in SMEs are the central point where all business activities start, members of a German entrepreneurs association were approached in the course of a qualitative and quantitative survey. They were asked to assess in what way their social responsibility is expressed in specific management practices towards selected stakeholder groups. These practices in turn were assumed to result in perceived positive reactions of the respective stakeholders and subsequently to positively influence the firm's financial performance, i.e. cost reductions and increase in profits. In the paper, a research model is presented that elaborates the relationship between an SME executive's social responsibility and the value creation of a firm, i.e. whether (personal) values create (economic) value. It was found that socially responsible management practices towards employees, customers and to a lesser extent society have a positive impact on the firm and its performance. As such, values can create additional value.

The concept of investor impact of socially responsible investments is relatively new. Our article expands knowledge in this field by analyzing how investor impact is implemented in the ethical investment policies of 45 providers of publicly traded, socially responsible funds. Based on a typological content analysis, we first develop an impact-focused category system, which in the second step is used to distinguish three types of fund providers: ESG hermits, ESG ambassadors and ESG evangelists. Our results suggest that socially responsible fund providers with a stronger impact orientation, such as ESG evangelists, also employ strategies that are more likely to achieve investor impact. In contrast, fund providers with a weaker impact orientation, such as ESG hermits, focus more on purity aspects and therefore tend to utilize strategies that defend the purity claim but also show a weaker investor impact.

This chapter considers the development of German and European competition law, particularly Ordoliberalism and the Freiburg school of economic thought. It discusses the accounts of Franz Bohm, Walter Eucken, Hans Grossman-Doerty, and other ordoliberals. It looks into Ordoliberalism's policies and uses them as contrast and comparison to the development of English and American ideas concerning competition law. It also investigates some of the past and present ideological differences between antitrust law in Brussels and Washington.

Die Sozialen Marktwirtschaft hat das deutsche Wirtschaftswunder hervorgebracht. Aber wie ist sie eigentlich entstanden? Wir zeichnen hier die Geschichte der Sozialen Marktwirtschaft von ihren Urahnen wie Aristoteles über Max Weber, Walter Eucken und Ludwig Erhard nach. Denn: Nur wer die Vergangenheit kennt, kann die Gegenwart verstehen - und so die Zukunft gestalten.

Both Wilhelm Röpke and Alexander Rüstow chose to become refugees in 1933; both felt this as an existential necessity—in Röpke’s case permanently—and both wrote works in exile on a higher intellectual plane than had been possible hitherto. The freedom and polemical sharpness common to their otherwise very different styles stand in contrast to the oblique, elusively ‘value-free’, visibly painstaking terminology a Walter Eucken, the half-exile in Freiburg, would tend to favour under the Third Reich. Without these complementary experiences, the Germans might indeed have been robbed of their historical memory and denied the creative reformulation of principles mistakenly thought by them to be obsolete: a process of prevention and cure in which Wilhelm Röpke, Alexander Rüstow and Walter Eucken played the roles, in Ralph Emerson’s sense, of representative men.3

German neoliberalism, often called ordoliberalism, is a significant albeit distressingly neglected, body of thought in the political economy of this century. Few of its main works have been translated into English. It shares with Adam Smith and David Hume, and more recently F.A. Hayek, a 'classical' political economy that focuses on questions of order, institutions, law and ethics, notwithstanding the differences between these thinkers and their respective traditions. As Terence Hutchison argues, a mainstream 'Ricardian' methodology in economics is conceived of in narrowly economic terms. The other 'Smithian' case for a free market economy is formulated in much broader terms, encompassing the political and social context. This is the lineage in which German neoliberalism has to be placed.

IEvery time another corporate scandal captures media headlines, the ‘bad apple vs. bad barrel’ discussion starts anew. Yet this debate overlooks the influence of the broader societal context on organizational behavior. In this article, we argue that misbehaviors of organizations (the ‘barrels’) and their members (the ‘apples’) cannot be addressed properly without a clear understanding of their broader context (the ‘larder’). Whereas previously, a strong societal framework dampened the practical application of the Homo economicus concept (business actors as perfectly rational and egocentric utility-maximizing agents without any moral concern), specialization, individualization and globalization led to a business world disembedded from broader societal norms. This emancipated business world promotes a literal interpretation of Homo economicus among business organizations and their members. Consequently, we argue that the first step toward ‘healthier’ apples and barrels is to sanitize the larder, that is, adapt the framework in which organizations and their members evolve.

Birth of the German Ordoliberalism.

Léon Harmel, né le 17 février 1829, à La Neuville-lès-Wasigny, dans les Ardennes, et mort le 25 novembre 1915, à Nice, était un industriel français. Camérier secret du pape Léon XIII, il expérimenta la doctrine sociale de l'Église, engagée par ce dernier, dans sa filature du Val-des-Bois sur la commune de Warmeriville, dans le département français de la Marne, à la limite entre ce département de la Marne et celui des Ardennes.

As Minister of Labour, Brauns advanced laws and decrees on works councils, workers' participation in management, collective bargaining agreements, labour arbitration, labour law and employment exchanges. He also supported rules on policies such as social security entitlements or handouts for the war-wounded. Brauns was a major influence on social policy in Weimar Germany.

Franco, G., & Habisch, A. (2018). Wilhelm Röpke and the Role of “Moral Capital” for the Social Market Economy. Journal for Markets and Ethics. 133-144.

The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was to become a new Pentecost of the Catholic Church. The event also really shed new light on the contribution and role of women: At the invitation of Saint Pope Paul VI, 23 women took part in the Council as auditors.