Dr. Antonio Argandoña, pioneer and scholar in the field,  to hold chair

IESE Business School and "la Caixa" bank recently joined forces to form the "la Caixa" Chair of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance, IESE’s latest research chair.   Dr. Antonio Argandoña, IESE economics professor and associate dean of the school, will hold the chair.

The bank's philosophy involves investing profits in social, educational, scientific and cultural projects.  This is the first time that “la Caixa” has financed a chair at a university.  Sponsorship of the chair will go to support research and other academic activities in the area of corporate social responsibility, an area that is emphasized at IESE.

The chair's mission is to generate and disseminate research and knowledge which will contribute to academic debate, as well as management practice and education. It will also support publications in specialized magazines, books, etc, academic events (conferences, symposia, seminars, etc.) and activities for businesses and managers.

The chair will support courses in the MBA and Executive MBA programs on social responsibility and corporate governance. It will also provide support to courses already in place on similar topics, such as courses delivered by the Center for Business in Society.

Dr. Argandoña is one of the leading pioneers in the field of business ethics and social responsibility in Spain. At the core of his work on business ethics and social responsibility is the impact of corruption on companies, as well as the growth in stock options in companies, the anthropological and ethical foundations of the economy, the use of ethics in the elaboration of company strategy, the social dimension of the work marketplace, and ethical investment funds. Among other things, he is a member of the Paris-based Commission on Anti-Corruption of the International Chamber of Commerce.

His activities in this sphere have placed him on the editorial boards of some of the world’s most prestigious ethics-related publications, among them the Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly, the Kluwer Series Issues in Business Ethics, Business Ethics: A European Review, and the Journal of International Business Education. In 2002, the Journal of Business Ethics ranked him as the leading European author on publications related to business ethics. 

The new “la Caixa” Chair of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Goverance is the third of similar chairs in IESE, which also has the Grupo Santander Chair of Financial Institutions & Corporate Governance, and a Chair of Ethics, Economics and Business, previously held by Dr. Argandoña.