Bankinter Consumer Finance and Pontificia Comillas University hold the Seventh Business Ethics Awards
The Seventh Business Ethics Research Awards were presented today by the Chair of Economic and Business Ethics at the Pontificia Comillas University (Comillas ICADE) Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences and Bankinter Consumer Finance, a consumer subsidiary of the Bankinter Group. First prize went to PlanBet's Esther Trujillo Giménez, for her work “Identity as a catalyst for ethics. A methodological proposal”.
The jury appreciated the scientific quality of her work and its significant contribution to the field of organisational ethics and sustainable management. Her study analyses how organisations can construct or reconstruct their identity to integrate ethics effectively, presenting a ten-step process for developing an organisational identity that intrinsically includes ethics. This study is of the utmost relevance as it defines a framework for creating an ethical identity and provides a detailed methodology for implementing this identity in the day-to-day management of an organisation.
The second prize went to Donna Marshall, Jakob Rehme, Aideen O'Dochartaigh, Stephen Kelly, Roshan Boojihawon and Daniel Chicksand for their study “Reporting controversial issues in controversial industries”.
The third prize went to Alfonso Echánove Franco, for “Integration of social value into strategic management. Proposal for a protocol model (SVS)”.
Finally, the fourth prize went to Javier Camacho Ibañez, Daniel S. Schiff and Stephanie Kelley for their study “The Emergence of Artificial Intelligence Ethics Auditing”.
Over five years recognising research in business ethics
The winners of this contest – which is celebrating its seventh year and becoming ever more established – were announced at the now traditional official award ceremony, which, took place at Bankinter's Paseo de la Castellana headquarters in Madrid for the third consecutive year.
The event was attended by the nominees and the jury, whose chairman, Alfonso Saez Alonso-Muñumer, a managing director of Bankinter and head of Bankinter Consumer Finance, said: "this new edition reiterates our commitment to business ethics, ensuring that values such as transparency, fairness, integrity and responsibility continue to be crucial to the corporate identity of every company."
José Luis Fernández, director of the Chair of Economic and Business Ethics, highlighted the importance of promoting conceptual creativity in relation to business ethics to improve corporate management.
Mr Fernández flagged the importance Bankinter Consumer Finance places on aspects that transcend just obtaining financial benefits, focusing on long-term objectives and commitment to society.
“Through this alliance between our two institutions, we are supporting sustainable development, always seeking opportunities to strengthen and improve ethical practices within each organisation”, he added.
In this seventh edition, 64 works were submitted by authors from Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, demonstrating the increasing geographical scope of this initiative and the interest it generates.
The finalist were selected by professors Víctor Luis de Nicolás de Nicolás, from Pontificia Comillas University, and Marta González Álvarez, from the University of Burgos.
The jury for the seventh edition comprised Alfonso María Saez Alonso-Muñumer, a managing director of Bankinter and head of Bankinter Consumer Finance, who acted as the chairman; Juan José Almagro, professor and member of the Iberdrola Chair of Economic and Business Ethics at Pontificia Comillas University; Juan Benavides Delgado, emeritus professor in the Faculty of Information Sciences at Madrid's Complutense University; Javier Fuertes López, professor of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility at Pontificia Comillas University and chair of the Unijes Group of Professional Ethics; Diana Loyola Chávez, professor at the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at Pontificia Comillas University; Inés Gomis Bertrand, managing partner at Temple Asesores; Almudena Rodríguez Beloso, head of Sustainability at Acerinox; Fernando Velasco Fernández, professor at the Rey Juan Carlos University and director of its Intelligence Services and Democratic Systems Chair;
and José Luis Fernández Fernández, director of the Chair of Economic and Business Ethics at Pontificia Comillas University, who directed and moderated the jury's deliberation and acted as the secretary.
Working together for corporate ethics in the business world
The Business Ethics Research Awards were set up in November 2017 through the signature of a collaboration agreement between the Economic and Business Ethics Chair at Pontificia Comillas University and Bankinter Consumer Finance. The Awards aim to promote and foster corporate ethics in the business world.
Bankinter Consumer Finance and those responsible for the Chair consider that the success of this initiative, and why it has been so well received, is based on the search for synergies between the academic sphere and the private sector.
The eighth edition of the awards will be organised once its terms and conditions have been refined based on the experience of the previous rounds. This will undoubtedly result in even greater impact among the research community and in the specialist academic field of business ethics and related areas.
About Bankinter Consumer Finance
Bankinter Group's 100% owned consumer finance subsidiary is one of the leading financial institutions with the fastest growth in the Spanish banking sector in recent years, as a result of following Bankinter's prudent credit risk policy. It is active in Spain, Portugal and Ireland. At the end of the first quarter of 2024, the company had 2.2 million customers, an increase of 8% over the previous year. Its loans and receivables amounted to 7.077 billion euros, having grown at an annual rate of 24%.
About the Comillas ICADE Chair of Economic and Business Ethics
The Chair of Economic and Business Ethics at the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of Pontificia Comillas University (Comillas ICADE) is a forum for considering, debating and researching issues related to business ethics, social responsibility and corporate citizenship. It provides a meeting point for academics, businesspeople, managers and others interested in promoting ethical leadership in organisations in the context of a global economy.