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Ed FreemanBusiness Ethics

Business Ethics

“For the last 30 years I’ve been challenging the idea that business ethics is a contradiction. We have to develop new frameworks, new theories, new examples that put business and ethics together. In short we need a conceptual revolution that makes business an ethical and integral part of society. Business is not just about the money and the profits. It is about how we create value for each other. It is the most powerful system of social cooperation in human history.”

Ed Freeman on Business Ethics

Since receiving his Ph.D. in Philosophy with an emphasis on Ethics and Decision Making, Ed Freeman has studied how ethics plays a role in business and business theory.
In a world in which daily reports of questionable business practices, from insider trading to environmental pollution, dominate the headlines, the need to understand the large issues of how business and ethics are, and ought to be, connected is of paramount concern to Ed and his work on the topic. He is author of over one hundred case studies, has developed innovative courses using traditional cases, as well as novels, short stories, and theater, and is consultant to many global corporations on matters of business ethics. With a number of colleagues he is the author of the textbook, Business Ethics (Pearson, 2009). He has edited book series with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and the Philosophy Documentation Center that has produced more than twenty five books helping to define the field of business ethics.



R. Edward Freeman is the Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration at The Darden School, Academic Director of the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics—an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with nearly $6 trillion in annual revenues and more than 14 million employees—to renew and enhance the link between ethical behavior and business practice. From 1986 to 2009 he was Director of Darden’s Olsson Center for Applied Ethics, one of the world’s leading academic centers for the study of ethics. Both organizations are housed at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

To watch Ed Freeman talk more about Business ethics, visit his library of video clips.

Contact Ed to book a speaking engagement or schedule an interview about Business Ethics.

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TEDX Talk

On Friday, 15 November 2013, Ed Freeman spoke at Charlottesville, Virginia’s first TEDx event, TEDxCharlottesville—The Difference That Makes a Difference. His talk explained how business and business people can make a difference in the world, and why it's time for a new story about business as a difference maker.

Featured Publications

thumb-strategic-management-a-stakeholder-approach Featured Publication: Ed Freeman’s 1984 award winning book, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach was reprinted in 2010 by Cambridge University Press. This book has served to define a starting point for subsequent scholars and executives and continues to inspire scholars and students concerned with a more practical view of how business and capitalism actually work.