About KBEI

The Koeze Business Ethics Initiative (KBEI) examines the role and influence of business in public life with an eye to fostering discussion and collaboration. A program within Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business, the KBEI is a leading resource for businesspersons, students, faculty and administrators who seek to understand the relationship between business, the common good and a life well-lived. The KBEI promotes inquiry into ethical business practices and education with the understanding that much of West Michigan’s success comes from a mindset where businesses strive to remain locally owned, to collaborate and to cultivate philanthropic interests within the community.

The Koeze Business Ethics Initiative maintains a focus on the influence and ethos of locally-owned businesses, but also includes public talks from prominent national thinkers, diverse panel discussions, consulting activities, curriculum initiatives, a faculty lunch series, international conference presentations, research, and student-centered events. Under its current director Professor Michael DeWilde, the Initiative focuses primarily on four areas of inquiry:

• The values and psychology of family-owned businesses;
• Ethics in health care with a special emphasis on ethics at the end of life;
• The development, sustainability and transmission of social capital and its relation to civic well-being;
• The understanding and use of behavioral ethics (moral psychology, neuroethics, etc.) in promoting innovative, affective business education and consulting.
   

KBEI Staff

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