The economic view of markets focuses on monetary incentives and capability drivers of individuals and organizations. “Trading values” in this framework focuses on trade creating economic value: transactions create win-win outcomes for the trading parties driven by material incentives. Although markets have alleviated poverty globally and created prosperity, this framework has also fueled current skepticism of business, calls for governments to reign in capitalism, and a rise of a “versus” mindset across levels of analysis (e.g. money vs. meaning, purpose vs. profit; poor vs. rich; business vs. society).
We focus attention on a broader and deeper meaning of “trading values” which includes both economic “creating value by trade” and philosophical/psychological “values that underpin trade.” This recognizes that organizations and markets bring together enterprising individuals who share a common purpose. Trade aligns their aspirations (material and non-material) and is based on their voluntary choices to invest complementary capabilities and efforts to create solutions to socio-economic problems they perceive to be important. Creating this view is imperative to reject the “versus” mindset and highlight how trade fosters upward mobility of each individual in intellectual, psychological and economic realms.
We seek support to grow our programs that enable lifelong learning through creation and dissemination of frameworks that incorporate such a holistic view. For undergraduate and graduate students, we will scale the curriculum offered at University of Maryland Smith School of Business and also share it with faculty at other institutions. For PhD talent development, we will lead a collaboration within the Markets and Management Network. Here, we hope to inspire and empower the next generation of management scholars to explore free markets in their research and incorporate the curriculum we have created in teaching to expand the views of their own students.
