Ética e "ESG Standards"

Objectives

This course aims at providing students tools and establish criteriums to answer the key ethics question: “What is the right thing to do in this specific situation in which I am involved?”. It also addresses processes and tools that can be implemented to: (1) detect and avoid non-ethical contexts; (2) promote and disseminate ethical behaviors, and (3) consequences of non-ethical conducts. Finally, it addresses the growing importance of ESG and responsible investment in financial markets and its impact in corporate strategy.

General characterization

Code

14507

Credits

2

Responsible teacher

Rodrigo Tavares

Hours

Weekly - Available soon

Total - Available soon

Teaching language

Portuguese | English

Prerequisites

Available soon

Bibliography

Rushworth M. Kidder, “How Good People Make Tough Choices Rev Ed: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living”, HarperCollins, Nov 4, 2009.
Alexander V. Laski, The Handbook of Financial Communication and Investor Relations (Handbooks in Communication and Media), WILEY Blackwell
Rushworth M. Kidder, “Moral Courage”, HarperCollins Mar 17, 2009.
António Pinto Leite, “O Amor como Critério de Gestão”, Príncipia, June 2012.
João César das Neves, “Introdução à Ética Empresarial” (2ª Edição revista e atualizada), Principia, setembro de 2014
“Guidance and case studies for ESG integration: Equities and fixed income.”, CFA Institute and Principles for Responsible Investment, 2018.
“The Evolution of ESG Investing From Ethical Concern to Corporate Value”. Kawaguchi, Mariko. 26 May 2017
Briefing paper: “Financial Performance of ESG Integration in US Investing”, 20 February 2018 (https://www.unpri.org)

Teaching method

This is an applied course and thus relies considerably on class discussion of case studies, and therefore requires preparation in advance of each class. Additionally, there are two cases, one per each lesson, that are take-home work in groups of 3-5 students.

Evaluation method

The assessment of this CU is done together with the block of CUs of the same area of knowledge. This assessment has 3 moments, which together define the final grade of the CU:
•Individual exam with a weighting of 50% of the total mark
•Group work with a weighting of 35% of the total grade value
•Individual reflection-action exercise carried out at the end of the curricular unit, with a weighting of 15% of the total grade value. The set of individual action-reflection exercises is a journaling activity, which will constitute a learning portfolio capable of synthesising the contributions of the Executive Master for that student.

Subject matter

The main topical studies to be covered are: (1) Ethics: definition and generic perspective; (2) Business Ethics: Principles, objectives and benefits, including the role of auto-regulation and Code of Ethics and of external regulation and what is and how to prevent the fraud triangle; (3) The relation between issuers and investors: the role of financial communication; (4) Ethics in Financial markets: How the capital markets have been dealing with ethical issues, and (5) ESG and responsible investing: historical perspective and current context, its growing importance in capital markets and consequences of this prominence in corporate strategy.

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: