Your conscience -- your inner sense of right and wrong -- is not something you were born with. Like language, conscience is something we develop in the presence of others. Social scientists and psychologists tell us that conscience needs two conditions in order to form and thrive. Interconnectedness, so that we feel and experience our dependence upon one another, and self-expression, so that we can share and understand the impact that our actions have upon others and that their actions have upon us.

The expansion of the internet, especially through affordable and multifunctional mobile technology, is strengthening global interconnectedness and enabling global self expression on a massive scale.

The ultimate consequence of the digital revolution may be this: the world is not only becoming more conscious. We are developing a conscience.

Against this backdrop, a conflux of game-changing forces -- including climate change, the big data boom and the rapid evaporation of personal privacy, plummeting consumer trust, connected location-based sensors, overstretched healthcare and education systems, the emergence of virtual currency and new notions of shared ownership, the merging of nanotechnology and biology, and the accelerating growth of the developing world, increasing urbanization – all these and more are together driving a new set of urgent priorities and opportunities for us all.

Ultimately, rising expectations of transparency, the increasing power of emotional meaning in purchase decisions, and the growing realization that natural and human capital are not infinitely exploitable resources, are turning the traditional rules of business and economics upside down.

The Conscience Economy is the ultimate guidebook to this emerging economic landscape. Author Steven Overman outlines its social and technological dimensions and explains its cultural and financial drivers, while offering actionable, step-by-step advice for business leaders to seize new opportunity today.