The Forum is organized by the Research Centre Politeia in cooperation with the University of Milan and a Promoting Committee composed by several well-known Italian companies and organizations. Politeia is responsible for the academic organization and supervision of the Forum, while the Promoting Committee provides the sponsorship of the Forum and participate in the definition of the annual agenda.

Stimulated in great part by the initiatives and discussion promoted by the European Commission with its Green Paper (2001) and after the new Communication by the Commission (2006), Italy is witnessing a growing interest in business ethics and corporate social responsibility and various companies are promoting reflection and programmes on these issues. The aim of the Politeia Annual Forum is to provide the necessary academic support for these programmes, organizing a conference in which top managers of national and international companies – companies that are known for their commitment to ethics – and experts in business ethics and corporate social responsibility from the most prestigious international research centres will have the opportunity to discuss the emerging issues of ethics in the global economic system. It will contribute to increasing awareness and knowledge among companies about the ethics and social responsibilities of economic organizations – and to contribute to filling the gap between ‘practitioners’ and ‘experts’.

The Forum will provide the opportunity to bring together and establish networks between international and Italian experts involved in theoretical and empirical research in the areas of business ethics and CSR and also the opportunity to discuss and interact with top managers of large companies.

Politeia is a non profit organization based in Milan and founded in 1983 with the purpose of promoting theoretical discussion on the relationship between ethics and public choices. The centre’s research programs include political and moral theory, business ethics and corporate social responsibility, environmental ethics, bioethics, computer ethics, and science, policy analysis and law.

Since 1985 Politeia publishes Notizie di Politeia, a bilingual (in Italian and English) quarterly journal, where the Forum proceedings will be published.
The proceedings of the First and the Second Forum, edited by Emilio D’Orazio, are published respectively under the title “Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in a Global Economy” (vol. 74, 2004) and “New Perspectives on the Stakeholder View of the Firm and Global Corporate Citizenship” (vol. 82, 2006).