ABSTRACT
Business is seen as making money at the expense of social, environmental and economic problems, and thus aggravating unsustainability. Consequently, the social licence of businesses to operate is under threat. In fact, some even feel that our whole capitalist system is under threat. The fact that business and the way it operates are part of the problem when it comes to striving for sustainable development is now, more or less, commonly accepted. A very interesting study, in light of the above, is one that was conducted by Graafland. In his paper, Graafland refers to Hirschman’s seminal paper which introduces two opposing hypotheses on the influence of operating on markets, within a system based on capitalism and neo-liberalism, on human manners and virtues, such as generosity, diligence, temperance, sociability and envy.
