Smeal Professor Encourages Businesses to Pursue Fair Development Instead of Sustainable Development
Min Ding, a Professor at Penn State University’s Smeal College of Business, argues in his recent book that companies should focus on fair development instead of social responsibility or sustainability. In the book, The Bubble Theory: Towards a Framework of Enlightened Needs and Fair Development, Ding observes that academics, businesspeople, and scientists have not agreed about how companies should implement sustainable development or even what sustainable development should look like and involve. Instead, “sustainability” is a vague concept.
Ding recommends that firms focus on fair development, because a focus on fair development will naturally lead to “the right type of sustainability.” Ding says “Sustainable development that is not fair cannot be sustained.”
A focus on fair development also allows for a more objective measure of a company’s success. Ding claims that fairness can be measured: “many scientific disciplines study fairness that is a fundamental principle that has been driving human development in history”.
The title of Ding’s book refers to a framework he has developed as a replacement to sustainable development. His “Bubble Theory” is built on three levels. First is the symbiotic duo, or subconscious wants of the self and the species. The next is enlightened needs, or desires of the self and species beyond survival. The final level is human development, guided by fair development as the ideal principle, at least at this time.
Min Ding is a professor of Marketing and Innovation at Smeal. In addition to a doctorate in marketing from the University of Pennsylvania, he holds a doctorate in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from Ohio State. At Smeal, he has done research in video and audio data, development of new products and services, business in China, method design for data collection, and fair development. His new book, The Bubble Theory, was released on July 15.
