In Francisco de Vitoria's relections De Indis and De iure belli, free trade is presented as a human right in accordance with ius gentium. This right is rooted in the right of communication and association. The rights to travel, dwell and emigrate precede it and it is also closely related to the rights to preach, to protect converts and to constitute Christian princes. It is argued how the right to free trade has as its ultimate foundation on natural law and indirectly on divine law; trade is not independent of ethics; and it allows for the development of justice and friendship, among other repercussions. Francisco de Vitoria is pre-sented as a defender of private initiative and the free market.

We examine Van Wynsberghe and Robbins (JAMA 25:719-735, 2019) critique of the need for Artifcial Moral Agents (AMAs) and its rebuttal by Formosa and Ryan (JAMA 10.1007/s00146-020-01089-6, 2020) set against a neo-Aristotelian ethical background. Neither Van Wynsberghe and Robbins (JAMA 25:719-735, 2019) essay nor Formosa and Ryan¿s (JAMA 10.1007/s00146-020-01089-6, 2020) is explicitly framed within the teachings of a specifc ethical school. The former appeals to the lack of ¿both empirical and intuitive support¿ (Van Wynsberghe and Robbins 2019, p. 721) for AMAs, and the latter opts for ¿argumentative breadth over depth¿, meaning to provide ¿the essential groundwork for making an all things considered judgment regarding the moral case for building AMAs¿ (Formosa and Ryan 2019, pp. 1¿2). Although this strategy may beneft their acceptability, it may also detract from their ethical rootedness, coherence, and persuasiveness, characteristics often associated with consolidated ethical traditions. Neo-Aristotelian ethics, backed by a distinctive philosophical anthropology and worldview, is summoned to fll this gap as a standard to test these two opposing claims. It provides a substantive account of moral agency through the theory of voluntary action; it explains how voluntary action is tied to intelligent and autonomous human life; and it distinguishes machine operations from voluntary actions through the categories of poiesis and praxis respectively. ...

The purpose of this paper is to show how a MacIntyre-inspired business school could contribute to developing practical wisdom in students through its curriculum, methods, faculty, student selection criteria, and governance. Despite MacIntyre's critiques, management can be presented, in MacIntyrean terms, as a second-order, domain-relative practice, with practical wisdom as corresponding virtue. Management education consists in developing practical wisdom. How? Primarily by initiating students and enabling them to participate in communal traditions of inquiry focused on, although not limited to, the purposes and ends of business. The transmission of objective knowledge, analytical skills, and techniques is subordinated to the end goal. We consider traditions centered on shareholder value maximization, the balancing of stakeholder interests, and the fulfillment of the common good of firms. Each gives rise to a particular kind of business school. A MacIntyrean business school is one that seeks the common good of firms.

As a result of contemporary culture¿s focus on continuous innovation and ¿change before you have to,¿ innovation has been identified with economic gains rather than with creating added value for society. At the same time, given current trends related to the automation of business models, workers seem all but destined to be replaced by machines in the labor market. In this context, we attempt to explore whether robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be able to innovate, and the extent to which said activity is exclusively inherent to human nature. Following the need for a more anthropological view of innovation, we make use of MacIntyrean categories to present innovation as a domain-relative practice with creativity and practical wisdom as its corresponding virtues. We explain why innovation can only be understood within a tradition as it implies participating in inquiry about the principle and end of practical life. We conclude that machines and ¿intelligent¿ devices do not have the capacity to innovate and they never will. They may replicate the human capacity for creativity, but they squarely lack the necessary conditions to be a locus of virtue or engage with a tradition.

This article presents the Positive Leadership Action Framework (PLAF) to structure Positive Leadership (PL). The novelty of the PLAF is that it incorporates the connections of PL to positive outcomes (financial and economic performance and social well-being) and organizational virtuousness. Also, it acknowledges its conditional nature on the virtues to achieve flourishing within the organization and society at large. We argue that the leader's actions function as the engine for positive change within the organization, bridging the gap between individual virtues and organizational virtuousness and creating a feedback loop among both. To develop a positive organization, a leader needs to create positive assumptions among (and about) coworkers, positively impact the personal and professional development of employees, and balance positive formal and informal conditions at work. To do so, it is a sine qua non condition that the positive leader fosters his/her personal development by exercising the virtues and developing practical wisdom. In this way, the positive leader automatically provides followers with a vision of the final end towards the common good and achieves to set his/her organization on a pathway towards excellence.

En las últimas décadas, los consejeros independientes han ido adquiriendo más peso en los consejos de administración para aportar un juicio independiente, garantizado por un desinterés financiero y social. En la práctica, existe un enfoque negativo de la independencia que contrasta con los llamamientos de las organizaciones internacionales a centrarse en los aspectos positivos y con el concepto de independencia que varios estudios teóricos asocian con la integridad, la libertad, la autonomía y la ausencia de dependencia. En la práctica, existe una gran heterogeneidad en la definición y los requisitos de independencia para los consejeros, lo que plantea dudas sobre cuál es el verdadero papel de los independientes y hasta qué punto estos consejeros están en condiciones de poderlo desempeñar. Este trabajo pretende responder a estas preguntas y, para ello, se realiza un estudio comparativo del concepto de independencia y sus implicaciones prácticas en los códigos de gobierno corporativo de los países del G20, llegándose a la conclusión de que la figura del consejero independiente sólo tiene sentido desde el punto de vista de la teoría de la agencia, a los efectos de reforzar la posición de los accionistas con respecto a las posiciones ejecutivas de la empresa. Así, cabe esperar que los consejeros independientes aporten un equilibrio de poder e imparcialidad, pero sus incentivos no están alineados con coherencia para orientarlos a tal fin.

In 1538¿39 Francisco de Vitoria delivered two relections: De Indis and De iure belli. This article distills from these writings the topic of free trade as a ¿human right¿ in accordance with ius gentium or the ¿law of peoples.¿ The right to free trade is rooted in a more fundamental right to communication and association. The rights to travel, to dwell, and to migrate precede the right to trade, which is also closely connected to the rights to preach, to protect converts, and to constitute Christian princes. This has significant repercussions on the field of business ethics: the right to free trade is ultimately founded directly on natural law and indirectly on divine law; trade is not independent of ethics; and trade is presented as an opportunity to develop the virtues of justice and friendship, among other repercussions. Vitoria is portrayed as a defender of private initiative and free markets.

Not only individuals and firms, but also families engage in business as a social activity and this is true beyond the case of family businesses. Cultural differences in the way families are construed might influence the way they do business. There are different types of families, and among these are those described by Aristotelian and Confucian traditions, representing the West and the East respectively. The literature on virtue in business has been dominated by a Western-mainly Aristotelian-tradition (Ferrero and Sison in Bus Ethics Eur Rev 30(1): 8-24, 2014), neglecting the role of the family and focusing on the individual. In this paper, we seek to fill this gap by explaining differences and similarities in the normative evaluation of certain family-related business attitudes and practices, in light of Confucian and Aristotelian virtue ethics standards. After comparing the structure, organization and dynamics of Aristotelian and Confucian families, we shall draw some inferences regarding "virtuous" or excellent business practices-such as nepotism, bribery, gift-giving and guanxi and attitudes-on codified rules or written norms. For this analysis we shall make use of Aristotelian and Confucian ethical accounts as well as inputs from Family Science applied to organizations, which provides conceptual categories to compare the two traditions. Thus we hope to contribute not only to the comparative study of Aristotelian and Confucian virtue ethics in business, but also to the understanding of the distinctive role of families, raising cultural awareness for what may be considered virtuous business practices according to the Aristotelian and Confucian traditions.

On August Business Roundtable (2019), the Business Roundtable redefined the purpose and social responsibility of the corporation. Yet, this statement must be followed by substantial changes in the business models of corporations for it to avoid becoming empty rhetoric. We believe that the figure of the independent director may be one of the catalysts needed for this change of paradigm for corporations. In spite of the positive correlation between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and board independence, the development of the independence of boards during the last decade has not lead to the expected CSR results. Academics and regulators point to a weak definition and the non-standardized measurement of both independence and board independence (BI) as one possible explanation, and agree that a broader definition is needed. This paper aims to contribute to this debate. We develop a second-generation definition of independence based on a positive approximation to the concept by integrating an Aristotelian perspective of virtue ethics with the best practices of corporate governance. Thus, we define independence as a virtue guided by practical wisdom, that implies autonomy and autarky and which enables a person to act with integrity, fairness and truthfulness. In the context of corporate governance, independence is associated with an honest disposition to serve. Our proposal has political implications for supervisors that make decisions relating to the suitability of (...)

The compliance-based approach and the integrity approach have been the mainstream responses to corporate scandals. This paper proposes that, despite each approach comprising necessary elements, neither offers a comprehensive solution. Compliance and integrity, far from being mutually exclusive, reinforce each other. Working together, in a correct relationship, they build a harmonized system that yields positive synergies and which also advocates prudence (phrónesis). It enables the generation of a culture of compliance that tends to minimize the technical and ethical errors in decision making. In order to explore an applied harmonized approach, we analyze the audit committee, a specific and broadly accepted regulatory instrument. Formed by non-executive members, regulation requires these members to be dedicated, qualified, and independent as a guarantee of efficiency. We show how the compound of those elements produces positive effects in a context of solid governance. We conclude that it is the strong relationship between efficiency and prudence, in the creation of a culture of compliance, which enables the minimization of errors.

Una obra totalizadora y con vocación de Tratado que analiza de forma sistemática la transformación digital en un mundo de datos.