Human Flourishing and the Firm : Virtue, Strategy, and Deliberation

A comprehensive and integrative account of business ethics from a neo-Aristotelian, virtue-based perspective. Aimed primarily at researchers in business ethics, management, and philosophy, it will also be of interest to graduate students and advanced undergraduates in these fields.

Caleb Bernacchio and Robert Couch present an integrative account of business ethics from a neo-Aristotelian perspective. Engaging the Markets Failures Approach in Part I, they introduce the concept of 'eudaimonic efficiency' as a more realistic alternative to Pareto efficiency, before identifying several market virtues that promote human flourishing through mutually beneficial transactions. Turning to the firm in Part II, they identify a number of virtues that foster collaboration, support the development of a novel theory of value creation and associated strategic capabilities, and sustain effective corporate governance, contributing to the flourishing of customers, employees, and other stakeholders. In dialogue with Habermasian approaches to political CSR, Part III develops an account of stakeholder deliberation as an activity that contributes to eudaimonic efficiency by mitigating unjust harms stemming from negative externalities and other market failures. In doing this, they introduce an account of the virtues needed for effective deliberation between stakeholders.