26th Excellence In Services International Conference EISIC

Purpose: Management practices have been focused on the concept of the Homo economicus since Adam Smith, prioritizing the ‘maximization of profit’. The recent evolutions in the natural and human environments have shown that this paradigm has led to an impasse. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose a different paradigm for businesses where the ‘maximization of profit’ is replaced by the ‘maximization of wellbeing’. A management aimed at maximizing wellbeing is the way to ensure sustainable development, the preservation of the natural environment and to improve the living conditions of populations. In a first part the philosophical foundations of the wellbeing enterprise are explored, finding inspiration in Plato, Aristotle, the Buddha and Confucius. In a second part, an explorative study of Vietnamese companies is carried to try and make out where they are standing on the road to the ‘wellbeing enterprise’ and sustainable development. Findings: Resorting to the philosophical teachings of Plato, Aristotle, the Buddha and Confucius shows that they can give a basis for building a management, embodied in the concept of ‘wellbeing enterprise’, aiming at the wellbeing of human beings while preserving the natural environment. The study of the case of companies in Vietnam, a country which has known an extraordinary economic growth over the last twenty years and which is particularly impacted by changes in the natural environment, shows that awareness of the perils for the environment and populations is growing, encouraged by national authorities, and that a sizeable number of companies are engaged in sustainable strategies and policies, but with striking differences between large public companies, some of them being already quite advanced, and small and medium-sized ‘family companies’ where almost nothing or very little is done mainly due to lack of knowledge, understanding and resources.