CBERICGEEE December-2019

The current trend of globalization provides intense impact on access to resources, raw materials and markets, expedited by modern maritime transport system comprising shipping and port operations. Security of ships and port facilities, thus, discernibly an enormous challenge to the globalized world. The international maritime transport system is vulnerable to piracy, terrorism, illegal drug trafficking, gun-running, human smuggling, maritime theft, fraud, damage to ships & port facilities, illegal fishing and pollution, which can all disrupt maritime supply chains to the heavy cost of the global economy. This paper discusses the nature and effect of the security threats to the international shipping and port industry with impact on the international trade & commerce and governmental economy, taking into consideration of the emerging geopolitics, Sea Lines of Communication, chokepoints of maritime trading routes and autonomous ships. The existing legislative measures against maritime security appraised and evolution of automation and digitalization of shipping and port operations taken into consideration. Studying the contemporary maritime transport reviews, existing legislation and the threat scenarios to the shipping and port operations, this paper identifies further advancement to the existing maritime security legislation in respect of piracy and terrorism at sea, and recommends amendment to the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) Code under the SOLAS Convention.

Mechanism of maritime security cannot evolve if climate change issue is taken into consideration. Holistic maritime security largely depends on the prevention of pollution and management of both environmental and anthropogenic hazards. The purpose of this study is to focus reality of global pollution and hazards which is threatening greatly maritime security rather than bringing climate change fallacy that would jeopardy the whole objectives. Managing pollution and hazards are the demand of the time that would never be achieved in the context of climate change fantasy. Paper embodies analogies on maritime crime and security associated with pollution and both environmental and anthropogenic hazards and not with the climate change. Pollution and hazards are the major forcing agents against the holistic security in the maritime sector. Natural including geological events can cause severe environmental hazards largely due to cyclone, storm surge, flood, saline water encroachment, volcanic activities, mud diapirism, mud volcanism, slope failure, submarine landslide, turbidites, shallow gas, active fluid seepage, seafloor pockmark formation, seismicity and seismicity induced trans-oceanic tsunami, and local tsunami. Anthropogenic processes and activities of continuous emergence of urbanization and increased population along the coastal belt of the maritime nations with very little and no proper management pose serious threats to the blue economy, ocean health and biodiversity. Climate change is an idea circulating anxiously in the domains of domestic politics and international diplomacy. It is an idea circulating to mobilize forces in the sectors of business, law and international trade. Without proper differentiation of relations of climate change, weather, environment and pollution, the holistic security of maritime sector and the sustainable development of model of climate change and environment will not be achieved. Security in friendly environment and pollution free earth are the key to every national security, comprising the dynamics and interconnections among the natural resource base, the social fabric of the state, and the economic engine for local and regional stability. Further, global climate change only oscillates between glacial and inter-glacial period of thousand to millions of years having marked variations within each period. In fact, there is no real impact of climate change on maritime security. Mixing of climate and climate change with pollution and environmental hazards in the perspective of security and sustainability is an unscientific way forward and a flawed approach.

Change in business has become sine qua non with change in business environment. Darwin’s Law of the ‘survival of the fittest’ suggests either change or perish. In order to adapt to the changing business environment, corporations must keep on changing by thinking uniquely and entrepreneurially. Thinking entrepreneurially, or say, innovatively in the existing corporations is called ‘corporate entrepreneurship’. The notion and practice of corporate entrepreneurship have become very dominant and has been on increase in the western countries. However, corporate entrepreneurship could so far not make any perceptible headway in the Indian corporations. Indian corporations have yet to trudge on this relatively less known path called ‘corporate entrepreneurship.’ It is against this backdrop; an attempt has made in this paper to present an overview of this relatively less travelled path of corporate entrepreneurship in India. Accordingly, it covers the aspects like what corporate entrepreneurship is, how it is different from general entrepreneurship, what are its drivers, prerequisites and barriers, and what makes corporate entrepreneurship successful.

With the advancement of information and communication technologies, century-old “sharing activities” between friends, family, and neighbors have extended to strangers based on various commercial models, often aided by mobile-app-based technologies. Globally, prominent sharing-based services include Uber, Lyft, and Airbnb, which have become behemoths in terms of their valuation, revenue, and number of users. Uber is reported to have over 100 million users globally. Bangladesh has also witnessed a rise in sharing-based services of both global and local origins, which include ride-sharing businesses such as Uber, Pathao, and Shohoz; home sharing such as Airbnb; and parking space sharing such as ParkingKoi. Pathao and Shohoz have already raised equity funds of $10 million and $15 million, respectively. A PwC forecast suggests that sharing-based services will account for total revenues of $335 billion by 2025. Sharing services have severely disrupted traditional business models and the economy they collectively encompass is referred to as the “Sharing Economy.” Based on a systematic literature review of top management journals and other scholarly works, we present the most overarching conceptualization of sharing-based services. Taking this knowledge forward, this paper not only conceptualizes and compares sharing-based services in Bangladesh but also identifies ‘’collaborative consumption’’ as the most dominant type of sharing-based services among them. This paper also presents scholarly works on the customers’ motivators and barriers, which creates grounds for future research efforts in Bangladesh concerning collaborative consumption services

Purpose of the research: Globalization has been playing a vital role in our lives today considering international products’ uses for our daily use and luxuries. The paper consists of a thorough analysis on how the Internationalization process is pushing the local brands to consider global boundaries. The purpose is to investigate the Internationalization process that has changed the dynamics of the Industry considering how the local brands are fighting for its position with the aggressive expansion approaches of the global brands. There are multiple reasons why consumers tend to choose global products over local ones and the most common reason to observe is its ‘Quality’ but issues such as the global brands’ efforts often outweigh even factors like ‘Patriostism’ in the market.
Methodology: The paper has been constructed based on practical strategy analysis of 10 diversified brands to obtain first-hand information about consumer attitudes. The vital attributes such as Quality, Branding efforts, Brand Image in relation to Premium Pricing has been analysed based on a study of 50 published journal articles on how brands worldwide have been surviving the Industry life cycle.
Findings: Statistical analysis has successfully helped to test variables- Quality and Premium pricing to consider factors leading to global brand choices over the local brands despite its sophisticated quality improvements by the local brands. The result is somewhat surprising where ‘Quality’ is not the main driver for consumers to choose local products over the global one, yet they tend to pay more for global brands.
Conclusion: Patriotism, Quality, Brand Image and Premium Pricing are some key criteria that firms can use to change the customers preferences of the Industry inducing local consumption choices over global brands. Companies; local and global would now justify their products’ features to offer viable products in global business perspective.

The objective of this research is to ascertain the effect of entrepreneurship and small business on Nigeria’s economy. The study focused on entrepreneurs and small business owners in Benue State, Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design. A sample size of 110 respondents was used, determined by convenience sampling. A structured questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. The study found out that entrepreneurship and small businesses have a positive effect on Nigeria’s economy. The study recommends that government at all levels in Nigeria should provide a conducive environment for businesses to strive.

Purpose of the research: Despite empirical evidence in support of the gravity theory of trade, the applicability of the theory in Halal food trade appears confusing and inconclusive in the adolescent Halal literature. This study aims to further investigate this issue when analysing the Halal export opportunities for Malaysia.
Design/methodology: This study examines Malaysia’s top 10 exportable food commodities with the respective Key Halal markets for the period of 2000-2017 by using the panel data analysis approach including the Hausman-Taylor model.
Results/findings: This study finds that the application of the gravity theory of trade within the Halal context provides mixed results. Being consistent to the theory, economic size of both exporter and the trading partners positively influences trade; however, as theoretically predicted, distance between trading partners does not always appear as barrier for Halal food trade. In addition, the study identifies the food commodities which displays market potential within the Key Halal markets. This will allow Malaysia to strategically diversify its exports in food commodities to the Halal markets. For example, given a market potential for Oil of Palm, Food Preparations, Oil of Palm Kernel and Cocoa Powder and Cake, Malaysia could consider diversifying its exports in these products to the Key Halal markets.
Practical implication and conclusion: This study suggests that the application of gravity trade theory cannot be generalized for Halal food trade. It rather appears as commodity specific. Hence careful commodity selection is crucial for Halal food export diversification

To address the current need for export diversification of Bangladesh, this study aims to determine the revealed comparative advantage of two potential industries of Bangladesh- leather goods and footwear products. In this regard, export patterns and performances of Bangladeshi leather goods and footwear products are analyzed from 2008 to 2017 using descriptive statistics, while the revealed comparative advantage is measured using the RCA index introduced by Balassa (1965). The results show that Bangladesh has revealed comparative advantage in both of its leather goods and footwear products with a gradual upward trend of RCA values. Footwear products show more stable incremental growth compare to leather goods. This study creates implications for policymakers to incorporate leather goods and footwear products in export diversification strategies of Bangladesh.

Managing bad loans or Non-Performing Loans (NPL) is a deep-rooted and persistent issue of many emerging economies. Banks are experiencing NPLs which eventually are affecting the profitability of the banks. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of factors of economic growth on NPLs of an emerging economy. In this study, GDP growth rate, real interest rate, inflation rate, one period lag value of NPL and unemployment rate are used as independent variables and ratio of Non-Performing Loans (NPL) to Total Loans is used as dependent variable. Data was collected from World Bank Open Data for Bangladesh and Bangladesh Bank for the year 1990 to 2018. The study employs multiple regression analysis and Multicollinearity test is also performed to test whether there is any strong correlation among the independent variables. This study reveals that NPLs rate can be significantly influenced by unemployment rate, inflation rate, real interest rate and one period lag value of NPL. However, GDP growth rate is found to be insignificant to NPLs rate in Bangladesh. This study might help policymakers to manage NPLs rate of Bangladesh in a better way to ensure sustainability of banks in future

Purpose – applying a set of data Nifty 50 listed companies in India; this research paper is an attempt to empirically evaluate the effects financial performance of board of director’s based on their characteristics.
Design/ methodology/ approach – a sample size of 50 listed firms have been used, from the year 2008 to 2016. Time series and cross sectional are the basic features on which the entire study is based upon for panel estimation. Beside it, statistical measures like ordinary least squares (OLS) model of regression and robust regression is applied to mitigate the problems related to endogeneity.
Findings – The primary results show that for financial performance measuring by ROA, ROE, ROCE, board of director’s features has positive and relevant effect on financial decision and performance of the firms in our study on Indian Nifty 50 listed firms. The results also point out that in the perspective of nifty 50 listed firms, the leverage and firm size are negatively related with the financial performance of the firms.
Limitations and implications of the Research – In accordance with the Indian corporate governance norms and reforms, it is obligatory for the listed companies to appoint independent directors system, by far is successful still, the regulatory and governing authorities should efficiently implement the norms of appointment of independent directors in listed companies to improve corporate governance system in India.
Originality/value- Initially, in not similar fashion with the prior studies based on the developing nations, this present study interrogates the impact of features of board of directors on financial performance of Indian Nifty 50 listed firms. Thereafter, while a lot many studies applied a solitary indicator of firm financial performance, this study examines ROA, ROE and ROCE. Using the OLS estimation the present study emphasizes the endogeneity issue between firm performance and board of director’s characteristics, and robust regression for mitigating the exactness of using OLS estimation.

Like any other organization, efficient manpower is the precondition of the success of University. Manpower is the strategic resource for any organization. So, this resource should be managed strategically. This study has been conducted to evaluate the HRM practices of National University, Bangladesh. Moreover, the aim of the study is to identify the key areas where the University authority can emphasize to develop their manpower in order to build and retain a talent workforce. This study is mainly a quantitative study. In this study, both primary and secondary data has been used. The faculties and the employees who work into the central campus of the University are considered as the population. The Yamane Equation has been used to determine the appropriate sample size. The sample size of the study is 86 where 11 respondents from Faculties and 76 respondents from Staff. Though the population is not homogenous, stratified sampling technique has been used to collect the primary data. Data has been collected randomly from the sample. SPSS version 23 has been used to analyze the collected data. The study has been conducted basing on five hypotheses. T- Test has been used to test the hypotheses. The study found the areas of poor performance regarding HRM functions of NU basing on the response of sample faculties and staffs. Moreover, the study also compares the satisfaction of Faculties and Staff basing on some common issues. This study founds Staff are given more positive response than Faculties about the activities taken regarding HRM issues. Finally, some recommendations are given to improve the HRM practices which will ensure the efficient manpower management.

In recent years, the rise of women entrepreneurs and their participation in the growth of the national economy is crucial for a developing country like Bangladesh. Since women are nearly half of the total human resource in Bangladesh, it is obvious that their participation in the financial sector can make a huge difference in the economic expansion of the country. Nowadays, women have become much sincere than before regarding their lives and rights. Therefore, the number of women entrepreneurs has been increased remarkably during the last couple of decades. Women have now started to contribute to the economic growth by their distinctive jobs. They have altered their typical roles of housewives into a substantial business figure having enough ability and enthusiasm to run a business alone and to face any of its threats in order to make a profit out of it. These women are also taking several practical training and specialized degrees to keep pace with the market need. Therefore, they are thriving rapidly as successful entrepreneurs and discovering new opportunities of economic participation. Considering the aforementioned information, the purpose of the study is to seek the motivational factors that encourage women to become entrepreneurs and to explore how their entrepreneurship skill can contribute to the SDGs. The study has been conducted by using convenience sampling technique on 203 women entrepreneurs of different districts of Bangladesh. Through factor analysis, the study has found several factors that lead women to be entrepreneurs and the major challenges faced by them in Bangladesh. The paper provides better insight about how women entrepreneurs are contributing significantly to achieve SDGs.

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a data-oriented approach for evaluating the performance of a set of peer entities called Decision Making Units (DMU’s) which converts multiple inputs into multiple outputs. DEA application is widely used in evaluating the performance of many kinds of entities engaged in different activities in different contexts. The present study makes use of DEA models to study the efficiency variation among 42 Indian Commercial Banks in which 21 are Public and 21 are Private sector banks. The current study carried out using three inputs three outputs model. The DEA inputs are Number of Employees, Interest Income and Other Income. The DEA outputs are Deposits, Investments and Advances. The data on these variables collected from Reserve Bank of India Bulletin (2017-2018). From the analysis, it is evident that maximum number of public sectors banks are efficient compared to private sector banks and all the inefficient banks should follow the practices of efficient banks.

In this modern era of globalization and advancement of technology, the urgency of automation in the financial sector is increasing day by day. To meet the increasing demand of an expanding population, modern supply chains need to be more dynamic, robust and scalable. In developing economies, the need for supply chain financing in basic level of production and distribution lifecycle is growing day by day. But in Bangladesh, due to lack of funding and technical knowledge, a proper ecosystem has not been developed for structured supply chain financing (i.e. factoring, work order and distributor financing). This paper primarily investigates some of the key risks and challenges in implementing a digital supply chain platform through questionnaire-based research. Moreover, this paper develops some risk mitigation strategies that would be useful for any organization planning to implement a digital supply chain platform.

Achieving and retaining Customer loyalty is important objective for any business. Customer satisfaction, retention rates, and the customer loyalty positively influence the performance of the business and assist to achieve competitive gain. Fashion house brands in Bangladesh is growing with developing some exclusive brands. Aarong is one of the prestigious and recognized brands in apparel industry of Bangladesh. The purpose of this research is to examine the factors that determine customer loyalty towards Aarong. In this research loyalty means customer perception about the brand and repurchase intention from Aarong. Independent Variables (factors) were chosen after interviewing customers with buying experience from Aarong, and previous studies on fashion industry. A non-probability judgmental sampling methodology was followed for primary data collection and 301 completed sample responses were collected. Descriptive statistics were conducted to describe the demographic information of the respondents; twelve factors were tested to find out their influence on customer loyalty toward Aarong. Principal Component Factor analysis was used to reduce the less significant factors and find the high significant factors. After data analysis it is found that three major factors labelled as customer perception about the brand, customers’ economic benefits and shopping environment. From these factors, the first factor which is customer perception about the brand found most significant factor to explain customer loyalty toward Aarong. This result might help Aarong to better segment the market and to create more effective marketing program. It may also give a guideline to other brands in the same industry and might be important literature for future researchers in apparel sector.

Restaurant industry is one of the developing regions of Bangladesh which is concerned with the tastes, habits and preferences of the people. The dining practice especially in ready-made food segment has been diversifying very rapidly over the last decade among the people of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The objective of the study is to identify the determinants that influence customers’ selection of Dhaka city restaurants. Eating at a restaurant has an impact on the outdoor dining industry in Dhaka which varies in tastes and preferences of the city dwellers. Hence, this study has been sketched to identify the factors influencing the selection of restaurants by the Dhaka city dwellers. Here, some independent variables were picked after reviewing relevant and related literatures of previous studies; and some have been nominated after interviewing the customers. A simple random sampling survey methodology was followed, and 368 completed responses were collected for the study. Statistical tool SPSS 20 was used for data analysis. Factor analysis was used to identify the relationship among the factors influencing the selection of the restaurants. Result shows that the factors such as quality customer perception about the restaurant; core services; additional service and kid’s facilities in restaurants are noteworthy for selecting restaurants by Dhaka dwellers for dining at the restaurants. Despite the extracted independent variables from previous literatures, we got some new and logical variables by interviewing our sample respondents in the context of Dhaka, such as hangout, couple dining, prospective bride-groom family meeting, card acceptance, kids’ zone which are also found substantial for selecting restaurants of Dhaka city dwellers. The result can guide the marketers and future researchers to cognize the consumer influencing behavior to choose the restaurant and implementing marketing strategies.

Mobile phone has diversified usages to different users in accordance with their necessities. With the dramatic increase in mobile phone usage in recent years, when deciding to buy a mobile phone, people consider different factors. This study has put efforts to uncover the underlying factors which influence customers in choosing mobile phones. Data were collected from those who people live in Dhaka city maintaining equal ratios of various groups like male, female, businessmen, employees, students and others (mostly student). The convenient sampling method was used to select the desired respondents. The study was undertaken on 305 mobile phone users of Dhaka city, Bangladesh. The data was analyzed using factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha. With the help of factor analysis, twelve decision factors of consumer buying behavior were derived. On these twelve factors a factor analysis was performed with perceived satisfaction of consumers in terms of buying decision as an independent variable. The findings showed that “social factor” has the highest positive impact on the satisfaction followed by brand, advertising & price. The study provided useful insights into the behavior of consumers buying mobile phones.

Online shopping is getting popular day by day since consumers can shop whenever, wherever and whatever they like. The present study aims at determining the factors influencing online shopping behavior. It also tries to examine the mediating effect of technological knowledge on the relationship between the determining factors and online shopping behavior. Data have been collected from 390 respondents who have online shopping experiences. The data of this study have been collected from the respondents with a structured questionnaire survey with a five-point likert scale. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS SEM) technique with the support of smart PLS 2.0M3 software has been used for analyzing the collected data. The data analysis findings reveal that convenience attitude is the most significant followed by trust, subjective norm, technological knowledge and perceived usefulness in influencing online shopping behavior. On the other hand, technological knowledge partially mediates the relationship between attitude and online shopping behavior; and relationship between perceived usefulness and online shopping behavior. The findings of this study might be helpful for the firms doing online business or intending to ship their business from brick and mortar to click and mortar.

Archaeological tourism is a prospective tourism form to exalt the country branding. The objective of this study is to underline the 4A development to advance Mahasthangarh as an exceptional tourism destination in Bangladesh. The authors have used focus group discussion and observation method among the stakeholders to find out the eventual results. A longitudinal study among the local community people has been conducted to find out how community archaeology can develop local economy. Disability access, funding mechanisms, signage and language, new technology and social media, marketing and merchandise, coordinated tourism strategies, environmental impact assessment, logistics for visitors, scope for vernacular arts and crafts possibly in the form of merchandise sold to the tourists, strategies to mitigate the harmful effects by increased footfall of tourists are included in a brief. Sustainable 4A development can lead the destination to reach a new height as well as can support the concerned authorities to ensure adequate facilities and flexible accessibility to open the door of archaeological tourism at Mahasthangarh which can turn the rural economy of this area into an emblematic example.

The ready-made garments (RMG) can have a noteworthy contribution to the economy of a country when it possesses a noticeable application of technology and innovation in its design attractiveness, healthier aspects of body and environment. The primary purpose of this study is to show the relevance of including RMG sector in Science and Technology Park of Extremadura (PCTEx), a prominent member of Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain (APTE), Spain in Badajoz zone. Based on the study result, it is proposed to include this promising sector in this area that has impact. The conclusion finds that the PCTEx can include the sector in this area that can ensure greater impact in social and financial gain of the economy. The study follows case study method and the result shown based on face to face interview using unstructured openended questionnaire. The findings support that if this sector tends to run and is supervised by the PCTEx authority in Badajoz, with the influence of this non-government association, it will flourish with its superior performance and in turn will contribute to the development of the region by creating employment opportunity for a number of unemployed people especially for women and to the country economy as a whole. The availability of low-cost human resources especially high-tech equipment and sector-specific friendly environment all work behind the motivation of the inclusion of this sector in Badajoz, Spain.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out the impact of selected macroeconomic factors on imports in Bangladesh. This paper has been used the percentages of import expenditures of the total GDP as a dependent variable and real exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rate as an independent variable. Research method: In this study, the time-series data analysis had been exploited for collecting data. Data were collected from various sources such as the World Bank, Economic Indicator, the Bureau of Statistics Bangladesh and the Central Bank of Bangladesh. To examine data, EViews 9 version has been used as the time-series data analysis. Numerous tests have been applied in this paper such as descriptive statistics, visual plot, Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), Johansen test for co-integration, Error Correction Model (ECM), CUSUM and CUSUM square test. Findings: The test results reveal that there was a positive relationship between import expenditure and inflation rate besides has a positive relationship between import and interest rate. Furthermore, this paper illustrates if the real exchange rate, inflation rate, and interest rates increase then the import expenditures also increase in the outlook of Bangladesh. Therefore, the import expenditures did not hold because of import expenditures ware highly influenced by selected macroeconomic variables during 1971-2018 in the economy of Bangladesh.

We are currently living in the age of the fourth industrial revolution and the world is evolving rapidly as it undergoes along with the revolution where robotic process automation will redefine economic activity and lead our way of living into a new era. The technology today around the world are not only changing, but they are upgrading and emerging with one another. And this automation revolution irrevocably has impacts on the individual, social and economic sectors and the lives of future generations. The purpose of this study is to find out robotics’ impact on the worldwide economy. We represent how intensely robotics enhances the economy of countries throughout the world, especially in some top robotics major countries. We analysed a huge number of previous findings regarding the relevant topic and came up with some specific reasons concerning why robotics is the ultimate booster in the economical factor. Although this is a new field in lots of countries, so there is still a significant amount of challenges that must be faced and overcome. We point out some major challenges of robotics major countries and the way they are struggling and finding solutions to those challenges so that the rest of the world can learn from that, come out of the fear of automation and adopt the technology. Some key opportunities have also been discussed, and there is a little direction of the future of robotics in the economy so that the next generation may have some ideas of the future industrial sector of this field.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) raises national productivity and therefore output and wages. Multinational firms bring in better technological and managerial know-how, which directly raises output in their operations. The main objective of this study is to measure the impact of the British exist from the European Union on foreign direct investment and its impact on UK business. The expectation generates problems on labor markets, and the England policies should create a more flexible labor market and a stronger orientation towards other countries outside the Europe.

We are facing an anthropological crisis, not economic. The debate on economics and its methods of study cannot be divorced from a correct reading of history that in the long term tends to repeat itself, as G.B. Vico had envisioned; the nature of man never changes, constantly oscillating between Cain and Abel, and it would seem that only pain leads man to wisdom. The single technical-rational thought makes us see the future as the only guarantee of success and we therefore cannot understand the correlations between causes and effects in our history. We act as if the past had been erased and as if history had never manifested similar situations to those in which we find ourselves today. The toxic consequences of this model are socio-cultural inequality, poverty, moral degradation, a raging and permanent conflict, lack of imagination and creativity. Is all this due to an incorrect adjustment of the markets (economic crisis) or to the end of a socio-cultural model incapable of responding to the problems of man as a person not as an object (anthropological crisis)? “Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty” (Caritas in veritate, chapter II, 21). The system taken to extremes created a concentration of financial wealth that is unparalleled in history with a sort of hegemonic senate that is superordinate to individual states. We have to return to the man and to a Welfare system in which healthcare is fundamental because in this way we can understand the solidarity and we can build a real “societas” – this world in old Latin means “alliance” – and this is a foundation of our happiness. The solution to our problems is not to be found in mechanistic rules outside of society but in the manner and socio-cultural policies aimed at reorienting the value systems of social life to try to rebuild the by-now forgotten reciprocal sense of solidarity; a society can only move forwards if it is based on familism principles and not on a war of everyone against everyone. Economics, if taken as a moral value, has betrayed its original role as a mechanism to respond to human needs, but has become an end in itself and an instrument of cultural domination that has led society to face the dilemma of its becoming. The idea of justice represented by a society of equals has been overridden by a society of unequals and the time has come to think of our time and redesign it; this is the real and absolute challenge we are facing.