Globalization has brought about a radical change in the environment in which companies operate, and also in the way they do business. New technologies have opened up no end of possibilities for companies; at the same time, they have created new problems and aggravated some that already existed. The goal of this line of research is to study how companies should respond to globalization, and to formulate proposals to ensure that globalization and the new technologies are oriented towards human development and the quest for the common good of society.

Good governance is vital to ensure effective management of a company, improve its reputation, and maintain the confidence of the financial markets. Leadership founded on ethical values will favour the development of a corporate culture in which honesty and fairness are the rule, mechanisms to avoid and resolve disputes are in operation, and management transparency and independence of judgment are encouraged. The goal of this line of research is to investigate the management models, the composition, structure and characteristics of governance bodies, and the types of corporate culture that promote ethically and socially responsible company management.

Project aimed at studying the company as a social institution and the responsibility for and impact of companies' behaviour on the economic, social and cultural fabric of their internal and external environments. Companies, whether individually or together with other bodies and social groups, may promote an attitude favourable to the common good by using their distinctive competencies to find new solutions to social problems, by proposing business solutions as models applicable in other spheres of society, and by fostering individual and group initiative.

Companies are looking for ways and procedures to make ethics more tangible. At the same time, public bodies and society want benchmarks to help them assess companies' performance from an ethical perspective. This line of research is aimed at studying recent proposals in this area, formulating new proposals, and developing recommendations for the practical implementation of business ethics policies and policies on social responsibility and innovation.

It is becoming increasingly common for a company's image to depend as much on its record on ethical and social issues as on its financial performance. Indices of corporate reputation tend to include social responsibility and ethics as relevant parameters. The goal of this line of research is to investigate how best to measure these intangible factors, how they affect company value, and how they influence society's perceptions of companies. How companies deal with crises that may impact their reputation is also studied, along with how they can respond to the demands of society.