Future outcomes, luck, and moral judgment. A study in experimental philosophy

Prof. Alessandro Lanteri (Abu Dhabi University; Hult Business School London)

 

Date: 15th January 2018 (Monday)

Time: 2.00pm - 4.00pm

Venue: Government Innovation Lab (Crescent Building)

 

Business decisions unravel in the future and their outcomes are uncertain at the time when they are made. Decision-makers partly lack control over some element that affects the outcomes of their decisions. Yet, they are morally judged for those decisions, as if the outcomes were not uncertain. Such are cases of moral luck. This paper contains novel experimental studies that investigate the classic four types of moral luck (resultant, causal, circumstantial and constitutive) for the first time. The findings offer novel insights, recommend methodological and theoretical refinements, and suggest multiple directions for further investigation.

 

Alessandro Lanteri is Professor of Entrepreneurship at Hult University and Abu Dhabi University. His research investigates social innovation and ethics. In this seminar he discusses how luck affects the ethical judgment of uncertain outcomes of managerial decisions that unravel in the future. He founded a business incubator and led open innovation initiatives with several multinational companies (ABB, Ford Motors, UBS, Unilever, Virgin Money). He is an advisor of the World Economic Forum and a business consultant. He holds a Master in Economics from Bocconi and a PhD in Philosophy and Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has studied, lived, and worked in over 15 global capitals in four continents.