Trust, Personal Moral Codes, and the Resource-Advantage Theory of Competition: Explaining Productivity, Economic Growth, and Wealth Creation

Abstract

Scholars agree that societal-level moral codes that promote social trust also promote wealth creation. However, what specific kinds of societal-level moral codes promote social trust? Also, by what specific kind of competitive process does social trust promote wealth creation? Because societal-level moral codes are composed of or formed from peoples’ personal moral codes, this article explores a theory of ethics, known as the “Hunt-Vitell” theory of ethics, that illuminates the concept of personal moral codes and uses the theory to discuss which types of personal moral codes foster trust and distrust in society. This article then uses resource-advantage (R-A) theory, one of the most completely articulated dynamic theories of competition, to show the process by which trust-promoting, societal-level moral codes promote productivity and economic growth. That is, they promote wealth creation.