Coda: The Italian Tradition of Management Theory for English Speakers

Thanks to the translation of ten essays of Vittorio Coda for the Bocconi on Management series of Palgrave Macmillan / Bocconi University Press (Vittorio Coda, Entrepreneurial Values and Strategic Management. Essays in Management Theory, Palgrave Macmillan / Bocconi University Press, 248 pages, £ 60), English speakers all around the world can now easily approach the Italian tradition of managemet theory.

The book offers a perspective on the Italian school of "Management Theory" through the lens of 10 essays of one of its protagonists. Vittorio Coda's discussion of the goals and purpose of the business enterprise illuminates the long-running debate over the goals of the firm. His conceptualization of the firm and its relationships within society transcends stale arguments over shareholders versus stakeholders, by viewing the firm less as an agent of individual interests and more as an engine of social development that unifies the interests of the different participants. In articulating a model of the entrepreneurial firm embedded in a social system and a values system based upon notions of fairness and social responsibility, Coda offers an original approach to interpret the business system. The view of a socially-responsible, entrepreneurial, business sector surfacing in this book offers an attractive alternative to most of the prevailing models of market capitalism that have attracted criticism over the past decades.

The book is introduced by an essay of Robert Grant, ENI Chair of Strategic Management in the Energy Sector at Bocconi.

Vittorio Coda, one of the founding fathers of the discipline in Italy, is professor emeritus of business strategy at Università Bocconi.