The Institute for Business in Society at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business congratulates IBiS Academic Director R. Edward Freeman who received an honorary doctorate degree at Radboud University in May.
On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of Radboud University Nijmegen, Freeman received an honorary doctorate degree for his groundbreaking work in business ethics and Stakeholder Theory. Radboud University Nijmegen is a student-oriented research university located in the oldest city in the Netherlands. Freeman is pictured with Prof. Frances Ashcroft (center), professor at the University of Oxford, and Prof. Robbert Dijkgraaf (right), director of the Institute for Advanced Study located at Princeton University.
The degree was given for Freeman’s Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach, which introduced the concept of stakeholders, all of those individuals or groups other than shareholders who have a stake in the particular decision or action of companies. The book proved to be a landmark in the development of stakeholder theory, a theory of management that emphasizes morality and ethics in managing companies and other organizations.
Researchers from Radboud University have been working with Freeman on new theories in business ethics and professional ethics as well as research into global ethical issues such as sustainability and poverty.
Freeman is also an honorary doctor at Comillas Pontificial University. He has received awards for excellence in teaching from the Wharton School, Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and the Darden School. In 2001, he was honoured with a Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement and in 2005 he received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Virginia State Council on Higher Education.
Freeman will offer a new, free massive open online course, or MOOC, “New Models of Business in Society” that seeks to revolutionize our thinking about how business creates or destroys value for its stakeholders – customers, suppliers, employees, communities and society, in addition to shareholders and other financiers. “If you’re interested in business, interested in making business and the world better, sign up for the course,” said Freeman.
Register now for “New Models of Business in Society.”
