Mission

Twelve years ago the Interfaith Declaration of International Business Ethics was developed and promulgated by a group of distinguished Muslim, and Christian, Jewish leaders from business, banking, academia, and religious institutions in order to promote common business values in harmony with their religious teachings. Taking this Declaration as a starting point, the conference examines its impact and explores major challenges these faith traditions are facing in the global economy.

The particular focus is on the creation of wealth for three reasons: First, the process of wealth creation in the last 50 years has showed both winners and losers, which poses the question why some nations are so rich and some so poor. Second, the worldwide discussion about “corporate social responsibility” or CSR is raising high expectations about social and environmental responsibilities of corporations; but it seems to overlook the questions how these corporations can and should create genuine wealth. Third, a large part of the management literature assumes the firm’s objective of “maximizing shareholder value” or “adding value” without critical examination in economic terms. Hence the question what wealth creation really means will be discussed from multiple viewpoints.