The role of finance and investment in fostering ethical, equitable, and socially just economies has gained increasing attention in recent years. While financial inclusion initiatives such as Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) have been critiqued for their potential to entrench economic vulnerabilities, faith-based investment frameworks offer an alternative vision—one that prioritizes the common good and transformative justice. Mensuram Bonam (MB), a Vatican-endorsed guide for faith-consistent investing, calls upon investors to align financial decisions with human dignity, sustainability, and integral human development. We propose the Integrative Justice Model (IJM) (Santos & Laczniak, 2009) as an evaluative lens for MB, and assess its potential to drive transformative justice in financial markets.
This study introduces a novel predictive methodology for assessing MB’s real-world impact. Drawing on a validated model for predicting transformation in quality of life (TQL) (Facca-Miess, 2022), we propose a framework that systematically measures the extent to which financial interventions based on MB’s principles deliver tangible improvements in beneficiaries' well-being. This work contributes to the continued promotion of the Inspirational Paradigm for Jesuit Business Education by integrating ethical finance, social justice, and impact measurement, bridging theory with actionable insights for faith-driven investors and policymakers.
Faith-Based Finance and Social Justice
Faith-based investment strategies, particularly within Catholic Social Teaching (CST), emphasize the primacy of human dignity, the common good, and economic justice (Turkson, 2022). MB calls upon Catholic investors to integrate ethical considerations into financial decision-making, moving beyond conventional ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) criteria to include moral discernment, social responsibility, and long-term sustainability. This aligns with broader movements toward Socially Responsible Marketing (SRM) and faith-consistent investing (FCI), which seek to ensure that financial resources serve as instruments for positive societal change (Kaefer et al., 2025; Laczniak & Shultz, 2021).
The Integrative Justice Model (IJM) as an Ethical Lens
The IJM (Santos & Laczniak, 2009) provides a normative framework for evaluating ethical marketplace exchanges. The IJM is comprised of five interrelated principles: authentic engagement, value co-creation, investment in future consumption, stakeholder interest representation and long-term profit management. Applying IJM to MB allows us to critically assess whether its principles foster true economic justice, sustainable development, and transformative outcomes for stakeholders. Previous studies have applied the IJM to subsistence markets, base-of-the-pyramid consumers, and transformative education initiatives (Santos et al., 2015) as well as to social marketing (Kennedy & Santos, 2019) and fintech (Kaefer et al., 2025). However, its application to faith-based investment strategies remains unexplored. This study extends IJM’s scope by evaluating how MB-aligned investments deliver long-term, transformative justice for vulnerable populations.
A key limitation in evaluating financial justice initiatives is the lack of standardized impact measurement tools. To address this gap, we employ a predictive model for explaining the drivers of transformation in quality of life, adapted from prior applications of IJM in impact assessment (Facca-Miess & Santos, 2016). The method, initially validated in Jesuit Worldwide Learning (JWL) and refugee education programs, can be adapted for financial markets by assessing the impact of MB-aligned investments on marginalized communities. This aligns with calls for evidence-based impact assessment in ethical finance, ensuring that justice-oriented financial strategies lead to tangible improvements in economic stability, social empowerment, and long-term well-being (Weiss, 1998).