Antonio Argandoña

• Universidad de Navarra

El libro trata de la historia de la Asociación para el Estudio de la Doctrina Social: AEDOS (Madrid, España). Mi capítulo se refiere a la sección de "Historia" de AEDOS. Como en las demás Secciones de AEDOS, es un Seminario permanente interdisciplinar sobre temas de interés histórico.

La función social de la propiedad ha ido perdiendo relieve en la ética privada, social y económica, hasta convertirse en un conjunto de actuaciones del Estado orientadas a un objetivo de igualdad económica y de concordia social. Con ello se ha perdido una dimensión importante de la institución social de la propiedad. En este trabajo se intenta un p...

El pensamiento monetarista se fue formando a partir de los años 1950, de la mano de Milton Friedman, Karl Brunner, Allan Meltzer y otros conocidos economistas; alcanzó su mayor esplendor en los años 1970, cuando se enfrentó con el keynesianismo como explicación de las fluctuaciones económicas y la inflación, ejerciendo una notable influencia en el...

Este trabajo intenta entender lo que Leonardo Polo consideraría que era la Responsabilidad Social de la Empresa. Se trata de una responsabilidad que nace de la persona como actor y se dirige a las personas como destinatarios de su acción. Es una responsabilidad ética, no meramente legal o social; está centrada en la actividad productiva de la empre...

This article introduces the special issue on “Corporate Reputation: Being Good and Looking Good.” Three of the five included articles help to reinforce a conclusion that “being good” and “looking good” are not dichotomous, mutually exclusive conditions. Rather, the two dimensions are linked in some kind of causal relationship for which continuing c...

Economics for the Common Good, by Jean Tirole, translated by Steven Rendall. Princeton, NJ, and Woodstock, United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 2017. 576 pp. ISBN: 978-0691175164 (French original: Économie du bien commun. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2016) - Volume 28 Issue 4 - Antonio Argandoña

Lecture given in Bilbao on 15 December 2017, convened by the Basque Group of the Spanish Chapter of the Club of Rome. Antonio Argandoña is Professor Emeritus of Economics and Business Ethics and holder of the CaixaBank Chair of Corporate Social Responsibility at IESE Business School. Retired professor of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis, he is a m...

La Encílica Rerum novarum dio en su momento un fuerte varapalo a la economía liberal dominante a finales del siglo pasado. Desde entonces, moralistas, filósofos y economistas andan divididos acerca de la moralidad del sistema económico llamado economía de mercado. Sería presuntuoso por mi parte intentar dar aquí una respuesta definitiva a esa cuest...

Facilitating payments are small sums that are paid with the intention of motivating low-level officials and employees to expedite routine procedures. In some countries, these payments are very deep rooted and have become a generalized practice; however, they have very harmful effects on government, the agents involved, the economy, and society as a...

Although virtues have gained a firm presence in the theory and practice of corporate management, humility is not ranked as one the chief virtues in the business world. In spite of this, it is an important virtue, contributing to the manager’s moral and professional quality and the development of the company’s human team. This paper explains the bas...

La comunidad política ocupa un lugar importante en la Doctrina Social de la Iglesia Católica. Esta ha desarrollado un cuerpo de doctrina coherente sobre el Estado, aunque no una teoría detallada como la de las ciencias sociales y políticas. Sin embargo, la doctrina católica apenas encuentra eco en las discusiones teóricas o en la praxis de los Esta...

A Catholic is a person who, beyond any way of life or moral or spiritual practices, follows Christ in accordance with the teaching of the Catholic Church. Catholic theology shows how this influences the life of the Christian. Even in today’s secularized society, the Christian is seen as a person with a distinctive view of life and goals. Yet when w...

Both the governance and the principle of subsidiarity have been thoroughly discussed in political contexts, however, their application to firms has been to varied degrees. Corporate governance has been applied to firms as a set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way people administer, direct or control a corporatio...

It has often been said that the financial crisis which has been hitting the world economy since mid-2007 is an ethical crisis. By studying the behaviors of the agents who made the decisions that led to the crisis, we do find evidences of many unethical mistakes. But bad conducts were also present before the crisis and in countries not affected by i...

A Christian is a person who, beyond any way of life or moral or spiritual practices, follows Christ. Catholic theology shows how this influences the life of the Christian. Even in today's secularized society, the Christian is seen as a person with a distinctive view of life and goals. Yet when we see the Christian as an entrepreneur or manager - i....

Can Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) provide new arguments to "humanize" the theory of the firm and the management profession? Several arguments (the legal, ethical, social and business cases) have contributed to the discussion of why companies should be socially responsible. In this paper I discuss each of these arguments from the point of vi...

The concept of the common good occupied a relevant place in classical social, political and economic philosophy. After losing ground in the Modern age, it has recently reappeared, although with different and sometimes confusing meanings. This paper is the draft of a chapter of a Handbook; it explains the meaning of common good in the Aristotelian-T...

Traditionally, the Social Doctrine of the Church was founded on principles and virtues. Then, the Encyclical Letter Caritas in veritate introduced the "logic of gift" and the "principle of gratuitousness" as essential ingredients of economic life. In contrast, the traditional theory of the firm, based on contracts, has no place for love; and likewi...

What does it mean that companies must "create value", or "be managed" for "all their stakeholders"? In this paper we aim to show what creating economic value and appropriating economic value mean, in order to demonstrate that so long as we confine ourselves to an exclusively economic concept of "value", though it may be possible (at least in theory...

The economic slowdown, still ongoing in many countries, has brought about dramatic consequences. These continue to be clearly felt in many countries: mass foreclosures and evictions, non-recoverable debts, extreme difficulties for individuals and businesses to obtain credit, bankruptcies, lack of confidence from investors and downturns in stock mar...

The traditional theories of the firm leave no room for love in business organizations, perhaps because it is thought that love is only an emotion or feeling, not a virtue, or because economic efficiency and profit making are considered to be incompatible with the practice of charity or love. In this article, we show based on an approach to the huma...

Ethics in business is necessary, because it is present in each and every one of the human decisions. People who take part in a firm look for different results and act for a variety of motivations. This means that managers should take into account the several dimensions of their actions, including material results but also psychological, social and...

The paper is the introduction to Universia Business Review's special issue on business ethics. Ethics analyzes human actions as long as through these actions human beings become better or worse persons. From this perspective, ethics is a necessity for business and professional activity, beyond being in fashion in certain moments. The paper presents...

Traditionally, economics has concerned itself with the efficient use of scarce resources used for alternative purposes (Robbins, 1934). The prime locus of economic efficiency is the market, where subjects conduct transactions that, under certain conditions, optimize the use of resources. Coase (1937), however, finds that, in this context, there are...

The encyclical Caritas in Veritate contains only two paragraphs that refer, almost in passing, to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Nevertheless, the encyclical is full of suggestions and ideas about how Benedict XVI sees CSR: as a natural ethical responsibility (but not just any ethic is suitable for determining these responsibilities), which...

Frugality is a little studied virtue, but one that is important to the lives of individuals and families, communities and broader societies. In this article we consider what we mean by frugality and discuss its role in the decision-making process, within action theory. This leads us to a normative explanation of why frugality is needed and what it...

The traditional theories of the firm leave no room for love in business organizations, perhaps because it is thought that love is only an emotion or feeling, not a virtue, or because economic efficiency and profit making are considered to be incompatible with the practice of charity or love. In this paper we show, based on a theory of the firm, tha...

Tourism has been, and still is, a very profitable industry in Spain. But the Spanish model of tourism development, following a pattern set in the 1950s, is now in crisis. The crisis is apparent in the widespread overdevelopment of tourist resorts and residential facilities in coastal areas, generating high environmental, social and economic costs....

Tourism has been, and still is, a very profitable industry in Spain. But the Spanish model of tourism development, following a pattern set in the 1950s, is now in crisis. The crisis is apparent in the widespread overdevelopment of tourist resorts and residential facilities in coastal areas, generating high environmental, social and economic costs....

This article serves as an introduction to the collection of papers in this monographic issue on “What the European tradition can teach about Corporate Social Responsibility” and presents the rationale and the main hypotheses of the project. We maintain that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an ethical concept, that the demands for socially r...

When Caja de Pensiones para la Vejez y de Ahorros, “la Caixa,” was created in 1905, it was not only the transient response to a serious social, political, and economical problem, but also provided a permanent solution by creating a long-lasting social welfare institution. In addition, its founder understood the responsibility of social welfare inst...

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not new. Many entrepreneurs created and developed companies along the time, with a strong sense of ethical and social responsibility. This article presents an example of how CSR was conceived and put into practice when Caja de Pensiones para la Vejez y de Ahorros was created in Barcelona in 19...

What are financial institutions' social responsibilities in developing countries? On the one hand, these institutions share the generic responsibilities of all human organizations and business enterprises. However, their specific social responsibility is the performance of the social function of financial intermediaries, which, in the case of emerg...

The financial crisis that started in the United States in 2007 and which has spread throughout the world has many causes, one of which is the abundance of unethical behaviors on the part of many of those who made the financial decisions, such as regulators, supervisors, managers or employees - and also on the part of a not insignificant number of t...

The concept of common good occupies a prominent place in political and social philosophy, yet it has had little impact on the theory of the firm. This is despite some recent attempts to resituate the theory of the firm on broader and therefore more fruitful anthropological and social foundations than those of traditional economic theory. The presen...

The central question posed in this paper will be how to organize board composition in order to ensure a responsible corporate governance both from a CSR and a good governance perspective. Adopting a stakeholder approach to corporate governance, we analyze the arguments given by different theoretical approaches for linking specific board composition...

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is not new. Many entrepreneurs created and developed companies along the time, with a strong sense of ethical and social responsibility. This article presents an example of how CSR was conceived and put into practice when Caja de Pensiones para la Vejez y de Ahorros was created in Barcelona in 19...

Las microfinanzas han conocido un notable desarrollo en los �ltimos a�os, present�ndose como un instrumento eficaz para la promoci�n de las personas y la soluci�n de los problemas del subdesarrollo. Consisten en la concesi�n de cr�ditos de peque�a cuant�a en condiciones muy adaptadas a las necesidades de emprendedores que carecen de patrimonio con...

The concept of consistency, applied to organizations, provides the common thread for a model of decision making that considerably enriches the models traditionally used in organization theory by adding a humanistic and ethical dimension. Extending the theory of human motivation to encompass a variety of motives, we state three conditions for long-t...

The purpose of this article is to present and discuss some of the best practices of financial industry, in three emerging economies: Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The main thesis is that, notwithstanding the importance of certain specific deficiencies, such as an inadequate regulatory context or the lack of financial education among the population,...

Tourism has been, and still is, a very profitable industry in Spain. But the Spanish model of tourism development, following a pattern set in the 1950s, is now in crisis. The crisis is apparent in the widespread overdevelopment of tourist resorts and residential facilities in coastal areas, generating high environmental, social and economic costs....

La RSC (responsabilidad social corporativa) constituye un criterio transversal que define una nueva forma de gestionar las organizaciones, mirando m�s hacia la necesaria implicaci�n de los grupos de inter�s y abierta al di�logo y a la sostenibilidad a largo plazo, sin renunciar por ello al beneficio. El responsable de RSC, sea cual sea la denominac...

The ever more frequent and forceful criticisms of management sciences suggest that we need a new model. In fact, the number of proposed alternatives has multiplied, with some suggesting that the range of economic points of departure be extended, while others turn to other sciences (sociology, psychology, neuroeconomics, political sciences, philosop...

The central question posed in this paper will be how to organize board composition in order to ensure responsible corporate governance both from a CSR and a good governance perspective. Adopting a stakeholder approach to corporate governance, we analyze the arguments given by different theoretical approaches for linking specific board composition w...

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have proven to be excellent instruments for promoting a wide range of causes. But they need to adhere to strict ethical principles, that they usually embody in voluntary codes and standards. This paper analyzes one standard, the “Ethics. NGO management system” standard, published by Aenor, a private Spanish org...

Tradicionalmente los economistas han sido optimistas respecto de las posibilidades de progreso en la sociedad. Esto no debe extra�arnos, dado que suelen definir el progreso en t�rminos de crecimiento de la producci�n de bienes y servicios para la satisfacci�n de las necesidades humanas. No obstante, siempre ha habido pesimistas entre los economista...

La responsabilidad social de la empresa es un concepto en auge, pero sometido a fuertes cr�ticas y, sobre todo, que adolece de una debilidad fundamental: carece todav�a de un concepto generalmente aceptado, lo que la convierte en una amalgama de propuestas basadas en teor�as �ticas, sociol�gicas y econ�micas, a menudo incompatibles entre s�. Este a...

La variedad de concepciones de lo que es una empresa tiene su reflejo en la falta de acuerdo sobre las responsabilidades sociales de la misma. En este art�culo se presentan tres modelos o paradigmas de empresa, en que cada uno aporta supuestos antropol�gicos m�s completos que el anterior, lo que permite perfilar cada vez mejor los objetivos de la e...

Corruption is a serious economic, social, political and moral blight, especially in many emerging countries. It is a problem that affects companies in particular, especially in international commerce, finance and technology transfer. And it is becoming an international phenomenon in scope, substance and consequences. That is why, in recent years, t...

The leading academic in Spanish Business Ethics offers a brief history of his subject in Spain and reflects on the evolution taking place in the 1990s. Professor Argandoña is Secretary General of IESE (Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa) in Barcelona, the International Graduate School of Management of the University of Navarra, Av. Pear...

When he died, Professor Juan Antonio Pérez López (1934-1996) left a body of writing on decision and organization theory that represents a break with current scholarly thinking on these subjects. The purpose of this paper is to explain some of the most significant aspects of his theories, which we find precisely in his appeal to ethics as being what...

The new economy is a technological revolution involving the information and communication technologies which affects almost all aspects of the economy, business, and our personal lives. The problems it raises for businesses are not radically new, least of all from an ethical viewpoint. However, they deserve particular attention, especially now, in...

Making use of facilitating payments is a very widespread form of corruption. These consist of small payments or gifts made to a person – generally a public official or an employee of a private company – to obtain a favour, such as expediting an administrative process; obtaining a permit, licence or service; or avoiding an abuse of power. Unlike the...

La economía tiene como punto de partida una teoría de la acción humana. El paradigma neoclásico, el más ampliamente desarrollado, pone énfasis en los aspectos de la acción más acordes con la elección de fines alternativos para la consecución de fines dados, según la definición tradicional de la ciencia económica, y con su objetivo, la eficiencia. E...

In January 2005, The Economist published a survey on corporate social responsibility (CSR), joining a long-running debate on the meaning and need for CSR in a market economy. The British weekly's thesis, widely accepted among economists, was first stated years ago by Milton Friedman (1962): a firm that maximizes its profits while acting within the...

Our economic system, the market economy, is a part of a broader system or “society.” We frequently study the operation of the market economy as if it were autonomous, even though there are many complex and mutual relationships between society, the economic system and the other systems – political, cultural, religious, legal, etc. – that form part o...

Conflicts of interest are a very widespread ethical problem which, precisely for that reason, deserves special attention, both from a legal viewpoint and from the point of view of ethics applied to organizations and professions. In this paper we use the conceptual framework of agency theory to explain what constitutes a conflict of interest. This e...

Facilitating payments are a very widespread form of corruption. They consist of small payments or gifts made to a person -a public official or an employee of a private company- to obtain a favor, such as expediting an administrative process, obtaining a permit, license or service, or avoiding an abuse of power. Unlike the worst forms of corruption,...

The cases of corruption reported by the media tend almost always to involve a private party (a citizen or a corporation) that pays, or promises to pay, money to a public party (a politician or a public official, for example) in order to obtain an advantage or avoid a disadvantage. Because of the harm it does to economic efficiency and growth, and b...

Corruption (bribery, extortion, blackmail, favor-currying, abuse of insider information, nepotism, favoritism, mafias, protection rackets, siphoning off funds, laundering illicit money) is a source of concern for governments, entrepreneurs, private individuals, non-governmental organizations, companies – indeed, for society as a whole, on a number...

There are three types of solutions to the problems deriving from companies' ethical, social and environmental responsibilities: those based on regulation by an authority or agency; those designed to create market incentives; and those that rely on self-regulation by companies themselves. In the specific field we are concerned with here, regulation...

The new economy is a technological revolution involving the information and communication technologies and which affects almost all aspects of the economy, business, and our personal lives. The problems it raises for businesses are not radically new, and even less so from an ethical viewpoint. However, they deserve particular attention, especially...

A businessperson is a man or woman who leads the firm's persons into action to change reality and achieve results efficiently. Taking this description of the role of the businessperson as our starting point, in this paper we discuss the tasks of the businessperson, the variables that define the state of a business firm (efficiency, attractiveness a...

Today, values hold a prominent place both in business ethics and in organization theory. However, there persists considerable confusion about what these values are and what role they play in these theories and, therefore, how they can be developed both within the individual and within the organization. Therefore, this paper seeks to define a concep...

La econom�a convencional dispone de un poderoso instrumento explicativo de la conducta humana que, a lo largo de las d�cadas, ha mostrado una elevada capacidad predictiva y explicativa. Como es l�gico, no siendo un instrumento perfecto, tambi�n se han puesto de manifiesto sus limitaciones, que han dado lugar a numerosas cr�ticas, tanto desde fuera...

Today, values hold a prominent place both in business ethics and in organization theory. However, there persists considerable confusion about what these values are and what role they play in these theories and, therefore, how they can be developed both within the individual and within the organization. Therefore, this paper seeks to define a concep...

The funding of political parties raises interesting economic, political, social and ethical problems. This paper seeks to address these problems with the intention of contributing to the general debate, but, above all, of understanding the issue from the company's viewpoint, since companies are directly implicated in political party finance, as don...

Today, values hold a prominent place both in business ethics and in organization theory. However, there persists considerable confusion about what these values are and what role they play in these theories and, therefore, how they can be developed both within the individual and within the organization. Therefore, this paper seeks to define a concep...

The labour market is both a market and a "social institution". But what do we mean by that? In the first part of this article we analyse different interpretations of the labour market's "social" dimension, starting with the versions postulated by economists and ending with those that invoke solidarity as a criterion. In the second part, we analyse...

This paper uses a real-life case taken from political history and recounted by Vaclav Havel, President of the Czech Republic. Three times in this country's history, its leaders opted for a "more realistic" solution (giving way when faced with a serious problem: invasion or insurrection) in preference to a "more ethical" solution (resisting, knowing...

The labor market is both a market and a "social institution". But what do we mean by that? In the first part of this article we analyze different interpretations of the labor market's "social" dimension, starting with the versions postulated by economists and ending with those that invoke solidarity as a criterion. In the second part, we analyze th...

La nueva economía es el nombre que damos a la reciente revolución tecnológica que se centra en las tecnologías de la información y de las comunicaciones (TIC). En principio, su principal efecto debería ser una aceleración del crecimiento de la productividad. En este artículo se estudia la nueva economía desde el punto de vista de la teoría del crec...

Sumario: La nueva economía, es decir la revolución tecnológica alrededor de los odenadores y las telecomunicaciones, está dejando notar sus efectos sobre casi todas las facetas de la vida de los ciudadanos y de las empresas y, sobre todo, sobre la capacidad de crecimiento de nuestras economías. El objeto de este trabajo es explicar lo que sabemos d...

La corrupción -soborno, extorsión, chantaje, clientelismo, abuso de información privilegiada, nepotismo, favoritismo, mafias, "mercado de protección", desvío de fondos, blanqueo de dinero negro...- es motivo de preocupación para gobiernos, empresarios, particulares, organizaciones no gubernamentales, empresas, etc.: en fin, para toda la sociedad. Y...