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Ethical Thinking in Traditional Italian Economia Aziendale and the Stakeholder Management Theory: The Search for Possible Interactions

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Abstract

Over the last few years, there has been an exaggeratedly widespread and frequently confused use of the concepts of ‘stakeholder’ and ‘corporate social responsibility’. However, some interesting insights of both these notions can be found in traditional European business administration studies. In this article, the Italian view will be examined. In particular, this paper investigates the teachings of some of the historical masters of the Italian Economia Aziendale (EA), with particular attention to the concept of the azienda, its finalism and its essential characteristics, in order to verify some consistencies with the more recent Stakeholder Management Theory (SMT). Principles and considerations seem to emerge from EA scholars’ seminal works that unequivocally connect ethics with business decisions. EA fits in with SMT in many ways, and the former (EA) seems, moreover, to suggest a specific normative point of view from which the role of ethics in business activities can be approached.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Edward Freeman for his precision and his willingness to share his ideas with us, and to all the participants of the 2007 EBEN Annual Conference held in Leuven in September 2007, in particular Antonio Argandoña, Peter Koslowski, John McCall and Heidi von Weltzien-Hoivik for their stimulating comments and suggestions. We would also like to thank the two anonymous referees for their interesting and useful remarks. Thanks also to Lino Cinquini and Massimo Contrafatto.

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Correspondence to Silvana Signori.

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Signori, S., Rusconi, G. Ethical Thinking in Traditional Italian Economia Aziendale and the Stakeholder Management Theory: The Search for Possible Interactions. J Bus Ethics 89 (Suppl 3), 303–318 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-010-0391-7

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