Interested in joining DCU Business School for the next Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship? Please send your expression of interest to marta.rocchi@dcu.ie if you are interested in the area of “ethics and artificial intelligence”.
Peer Reviewed Journals
| Year | Publication | Abstract |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Virtue Ethics Learning Through Movies – A Pedagogical Roadmap to MacIntyre’s Virtue Approach Using the Boiler Room Movie. The International Journal of Management Education, 24(1), 101303. Rocchi, M., Moosmayer, D. C., & Ferrero, I. Open Access | Virtue ethics is an agent-centred ethical approach that considers actions in the context of an individual’s life as a whole. This addresses shortcomings of deontological approaches including competing norms, of utilitarian approaches including non-desirable outcomes. Nevertheless, virtue ethics is not easy to translate into a learning pedagogy. We address this challenge by outlining Alasdair MacIntyre’s approach to virtue ethics and by offering a conceptual argument for the effectiveness of using movies to develop virtue competence. We construct a pedagogical roadmap for using a specific movie, Boiler Room, to nurture virtue competence at the intellectual, behavioural and personal layers. First, our argument contributes to the debate in this journal about movies in management and ethics education: We conceptualise movies as person-centred, context-embedded and life-narrating. As these are characteristics typical of virtue ethics, movies are particularly suitable to build virtue competence. Second, we construct a pedagogical roadmap for educators to develop students’ virtue competence through a specific movie and contribute to the virtue ethics education debate and the challenge to make theoretical whole-person virtue conceptions operational in the classroom. Third, virtue ethics competence developed in our roadmap contributes to taking the debate about the need of non-utilitarian ethical approaches one step further. |
| 2026 | Virtuous Organizations in the Age of AI: Relational Goods and Human Flourishing. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, Giarmoleo, F.V., García-Ruiz, P., Rocchi, M., Ferrero, I. | Accepted for pubblication. |
| 2025 | Virtue as Competence: A Conceptual Integration of Competence Thinking with MacIntyrean Virtue Ethics. British Journal of Management, Moosmayer, D.C., Rocchi, M., Ferrero, I. Open Access | Recent management education debates identify room for greater emphasis on character building within business school pedagogies. As a way forward, we suggest virtue ethics as an agent-centred character-building ethical approach that provides guidance in management education where norm- and outcome-oriented ethical approaches have limits. However, its whole-person and life-span perspective makes it difficult to develop virtue ethics competence in business schools. We thus conceptualise a virtue as competence learning framework for management. We do so by integrating Alasdair MacIntyre’s virtue approach with the intellectual–behavioural–personal (IBP) competence framework that specifies independent and interdependent dimensions of intellectual, behavioural and personal competence. The virtue as competence learning framework guides learners to develop virtue competence. We make three contributions. First, we explicitly address the whole-person and life-span perspective of virtue and thus address the lack of systematic approaches to virtue ethics learning in managerial studies. Second, by conceptually applying the IBP competence framework to the learning of a whole-person ethics approach, we address the particularisation of competences in the competence debate. Third, we offer concrete inspirations for a character-building pedagogy that develops whole-person competence and addresses the scarcity of ethics pedagogies that develop behavioural and personal competence. |
| 2025 | Can Work Be Meaningful Under Algorithmic Management? A MacIntyrean Perspective. Business Ethics Quarterly, García-Ruiz, P. & Rocchi, M. Open Access | Algorithmic management is deeply changing the way work is performed and the interaction between managers and workers in organizations. It also heavily affects the conditions for meaningful work highlighted by existing literature. Therefore, organizations need an appropriate framework to enable meaningful work when adopting algorithmic management systems. This article presents a normative study of the conditions for work to be meaningful in this new scenario. To fulfil this purpose, it adopts a MacIntyrean approach, according to which work is meaningful when it embodies practice-like characteristics. The article identifies the main threats of algorithmic management and characterizes the normative conditions organizations should meet to enable meaningful work. In addition, the article explores the strategies of resistance that workers use to live up to the standards of meaningful work when organizations are not capable or willing to provide those conditions. |
| 2024 | Adam Smith’s Virtue of Prudence in E-Commerce: A Conceptual Framework for Users in the E-Commercial Society. Business & Society, 63(3), 1462-1502. Schlag, M., Rocchi, M., & Turnbull, R. Open Access | As founder of modern political economics and prominent theorist of the commercial society, Adam Smith’s importance is universally recognized. Little, however, has been done so far to develop Adam Smith’s virtue ethics in the context of modern business, characterized by digitalization. This article aims to rediscover Adam Smith’s virtue of prudence and its relevance for the “e-commercial society”: It presents a framework that considers the central place of prudence in the relationship between a prosperous e-commercial system and societal flourishing. In Smith’s view of the commercial society, prudence enables people to develop habits of character related to industriousness, genuineness, spirit of sacrifice, and self-command, which help in the conduct of a prosperous business activity. This article translates Smith’s virtue of prudence into a language typical of consumers in the current e-commerce scenario, considering their development as persons and the contribution of their activities to the good of society. |
| 2024 | What Ethics Can Say on Artificial Intelligence: Insights from a Systematic Literature Review Business and Society Review, Giarmoleo, F., Ferrero, I., Rocchi, M., Pellegrini, M. M. Open Access | The abundance of literature on ethical concerns regarding artificial intelligence (AI) highlights the need to systematize, integrate, and categorize existing efforts through a systematic literature review. The article aims to investigate prevalent concerns, proposed solutions, and prominent ethical approaches within the field. Considering 309 articles from the beginning of the publications in this field up until December 2021, this systematic literature review clarifies what the ethical concerns regarding AI are, and it charts them into two groups: (i) ethical concerns that arise from the design of AI and (ii) ethical concerns that arise from human–AI interactions. The analysis of the obtained sample highlights the most recurrent ethical concerns. Finally, it exposes the main proposals of the literature to handle the ethical concerns according to the main ethical approaches. It interprets the findings to lay the foundations for future research on the ethics of AI. |
| 2024 | Rethinking “Digital”: A Genealogical Enquiry into the Meaning of Digital and Its Impact on Individuals and Society Capone, L.; Rocchi, M.; Bertolaso, M. AI & Society, 39(5), 2285–2295. Open Access | In the current social and technological scenario, the term digital is abundantly used with an apparently transparent and unambiguous meaning. This article aims to unveil the complexity of this concept, retracing its historical and cultural origin. This genealogical overview allows to understand the reason why an instrumental conception of digital media has prevailed, considering the digital as a mere tool to convey a message, as opposed to a constitutive conception. The constitutive conception places the digital phenomenon in the broader ground of media studies, and it considers digital technologies as an interface between the subject and the world. In this perspective, the media is not added to the experience of the person, but it shapes it from within on a cognitive, expressive and communicative level. The article makes use of two powerful examples to show the shortcomings of an instrumental conception of the digital, and to affirm the value of a constitutive conception for current media studies regarding digital interfaces. |
| 2022 | ‘The Virtues of COVID-19 Pandemic: How Working from Home Can Make Us the Best (or the Worst) Version of Ourselves’ Rocchi, M.; Bernacchio, C. Business and Society Review, 127(3), 685-700. Open Access | The combined effect of technological innovations in the workplace and the lockdowns imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly increased the prominence of remote working, with an undeniable impact on both business and society. In light of this organizational and sociological change, this article analyzes how this renewed work environment can be the place where workers can develop several relevant virtues, specifically moderation, integrity, and mercy. This new environment may also present the opportunity to develop a number of opposing vices, which are also explained and analyzed. The article concludes by suggesting some implications for managers who wish to promote virtuous behaviors in the new context of remote work. |
| 2022 | ‘Specifically Human: Human Work and Care in the Age of Machines’ Bertolaso, M.; Rocchi, M. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, 31(3), 888–898. [DOI] | This paper aims to show how the frequently asked question about the future of work, that is, whether human beings are going to be replaced by machines and robots, arose, and why the way such question is posed is inadequate to account for the human and social value of care professions. We discuss how the dimensions entailed in care professions are specifically human and argue that any kind of human work actually reflects them (and will reflect them in the future), irrespective of the impact of technological changes. The present argument also aims to unveil the extent of the effects of the postmodern epistemological crisis regarding the concept of work, to reformulate the question about the future of human work, and to offer a characterization of care as a specific component of human work in the age of machines. |
| 2021 | ‘Can Finance Be a Virtuous Practice? A MacIntyrean Account’ Rocchi, M.; Ferrero, I.; Beadle, R. Business Ethics Quarterly, 31 (1):75-105 [DOI] | Finance may suffer from institutional deformations that subordinate its distinctive goods to the pursuit of external goods, but this should encourage attempts to reform the institutionalization of finance rather than to reject its potential for virtuous business activity. This article argues that finance should be regarded as a domain-relative practice (Beabout 2012; MacIntyre 2007). Alongside management, its moral status thereby varies with the purposes it serves. Hence, when practitioners working in finance facilitate projects that create common goods, it allows them to develop virtues. This argument applies MacIntyre’s widely acknowledged account of the relationship between practices and the development of virtues while questioning some of his claims about finance. It also takes issue with extant accounts of particular financial functions that have failed to identify the distinctive goods of financial practice. |
| 2020 | ‘Practical Wisdom: A Virtue for Leaders’ Ferrero I.; Rocchi M.; Pellegrini M.M.; Reichert E. Business Ethics: A European Review, 29 (S1):84-98 [DOI] | This article analyzes in detail the virtue of practical wisdom as described by Thomas Aquinas, and on this basis it develops a comprehensive framework to enrich Authentic Leadership theory, establishing the virtue of practical wisdom as foundational for the authentic leader’s behavior and character development, and highlighting shortfalls that may stem from vices opposed to it. The goal of the article is two-fold: First, it seeks to fill a void on the role of virtues–and in particular practical wisdom–in leadership studies; second, it aims to show how cultivating the virtue of practical wisdom as described by Aquinas promotes the development of exactly those traits that are characteristic of an authentic leader, offering a set of propositions delineating these correlations. |
| 2019 | ‘Can a Good Person be a Good Trader? An Ethical Defense of Financial Trading’ Rocchi, M. and Thunder, D. Journal of Business Ethics, 159 (1):89-103 Open access | In a 2015 article entitled “The Irrelevance of Ethics,” MacIntyre argues that acquiring the moral virtues would undermine someone’s capacity to be a good trader in the financial system and, conversely, that a proper training in the virtues of good trading directly militates against the acquisition of the moral virtues. In this paper, we reconsider MacIntyre’s rather damning indictment of financial trading, arguing that his negative assessment is overstated. The financial system is in fact more internally diverse and dynamic, and more reformable, than suggested by MacIntyre’s treatment. The challenge at the heart of MacIntyre’s claims can be crystallized in the question, “under which conditions, if any, can a person be an effective trader and simultaneously live a worthy human life?” We conclude that there are realistic possibilities of integrity and growth in moral virtue for those who work in the financial sector, at least for those operating in a work environment minimally permissive toward virtue, provided they possess characters of integrity and genuine aptitude for the skills and attitudes required in their professional tasks. |
| 2017 | ‘Wall Street y la (ir)relevancia de la ética: la formación de carácter de los analistas financiaros’ Ferrero, I. and Rocchi, M. Revista de la Responsabilidad Social de la Empresa (26):101-123 Link This article won the Rafael Termes prize in 2016. | This paper uses MacIntyre’s argument presented in “The Irrelevance of Ethics” (2015) as a reason to reflect on the connection between the education of financial agents and the professional practice of finance. In particular, universities and business schools are incubators of the professional training and the moral character of finance professionals, but precisely these institutions lack of humanistic disciplines as anthropology, ethics and history. This paper aims, on the one hand, to elucidate if there is any use in teaching humanistic disciplines in the academic training of finance professionals; and, on the other hand, whether educating in virtue is a help or rather a hindrance in the professional practice of finance. |
Books
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2019 | MacIntyre e l’etica della finanza. Una proposta basata su beni, norme e virtu’. Rocchi, Marta (2019) MacIntyre e l’etica della finanza. Una proposta basata su beni, norme e virtu’. Rome, Italy: ESC. |
Book Chapters
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2025 | AI and the Future of Virtues in the Workplace Giarmoleo, Francesco Vincenzo, Marta Rocchi, and Ignacio Ferrero. In R. Fioravante and A. Vaccaro (Eds.), Humanism and Artificial Intelligence (pp. 97–114), SpringerBriefs in Philosophy. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. |
| 2024 | Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. A Virtue Ethics Approach Giarmoleo, Francesco, Marta Rocchi, and Ignacio Ferrero. 2024. In M. Béjean, J. Brabet, E. Mollona, and C. Vercher-Chaptal (Eds.) Disruptive Digitalization and Platforms: Risks and Opportunities of the Great Transformation of Politics, Socio-Economic Models, Work, and Education (pp. ) Business for society, New York, NY: Routledge. |
| 2024 | Business Ethics for Ecclesiastics Marta Rocchi In Schlag, M., and Schlitzer G. (Eds), Economics for Ecclesiastics, Libreria Editrice Vaticana. |
| 2023 | Teaching Ethics in a Decision-Making Module: A Guide for Lecturers. Brady, M., & Rocchi, M. (2023). In I. Negru, C. Duckworth, & I. Meyenburg (Eds.), Handbook of Teaching Ethics to Economists: A Plurality of Perspectives (pp. 129–144). Edward Elgar Publishing. |
| 2023 | How Practical Wisdom Enables Transformational and Authentic Leadership Ferrero, I., Pellegrini, M. M., Reichert, E., & Rocchi, M. (2023) In T. P. Newstead & R. E. Riggio (Eds.), Leadership and Virtues: Understanding and Practicing Good Leadership (First Edition). Routledge. |
| 2023 | Digital Technologies and the Future of Work: An Agent-Centred Ethical Perspective Based on Goods, Norms, and Virtues [OPEN ACCESS] Rocchi, M., & Bernacchio, C. (2023) In E. Conway, T. Lynn, P. Rosati, & L. van der Werff (Eds.), The Future of Work. Challenges and Prospects for Organisations, Jobs and Workers (pp. 151-163). Palgrave. |
| 2021 | Ethics in the Translation Industry Moorkens, J., Rocchi, M. (2021) In: Kaisa Koskinen and Nike Pokorn (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Ethics. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. |
| 2021 | Ethics and Cloud Computing [OPEN ACCESS] Murphy, B., & Rocchi, M. (2021). Ethics and Cloud Computing. In T. Lynn, J. G. Mooney, L. van der Werff, & G. Fox (Eds.), Data Privacy and Trust in Cloud Computing (pp. 105–128). Springer International Publishing. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54660-1_6 |
| 2021 | A Virtue Ethics Approach in Finance Ferrero, I.; Roncella, A.; Rocchi, M. (2020) In: San-Jose, L., Retolaza, J.L., van Liedekerke, L. (eds) Handbook on Ethics in Finance. International Handbooks in Business Ethics. Springer, Cham. |
| 2020 | Practical Wisdom in the Recovery of Virtue Ethics Rocchi, M., Redín, D. M., & Ferrero, I. (2020). Practical Wisdom in the Recovery of Virtue Ethics. In B. Schwartz, C. Bernacchio, C. González-Cantón, & A. Robson (Eds.), Handbook of Practical Wisdom in Business and Management (pp. 1–17). Springer International Publishing. |
| 2018 | A Virtue Ethics Approach to Finance Sison, Alejo José G. and Ferrero, Ignacio and Guitián, Gregorio and Rocchi, Marta and Roncella, Andrea (2018) ‘A Virtue Ethics Approach to Finance’ In: Sison, Alejo José G. and Ferrero, Ignacio and Guitián, Gregorio (eds). Business Ethics. A Virtue Ethics and Common Good Approach. New York: Routledge. |
| 2018 | ‘No Ethics, No Heroes. How Immorality Flattens Wall Street Characters’ Ferrero, Ignacio and Rocchi, Marta and McNulty, Robert (2018) ‘No Ethics, No Heroes. How Immorality Flattens Wall Street Characters’ In: Parvulescu, Constantin (eds). Global Finance on Screen. From Wall Street to Side Street. New York: Routledge. |
| 2016 | Teaching Ethics in Finance Curricula: Personal and Institutional Virtues in Financial Markets Ferrero, Ignacio and Rocchi, Marta (2016) ‘Teaching Ethics in Finance Curricula: Personal and Institutional Virtues in Financial Markets’ In: Teaching Ethics Across the Management Curriculum. New York: Business Expert Press. |
Other Journals
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2019 | ‘Technomoral Financial Agent: Ethics in the Fintech Era’ Rocchi, Marta (2019) ‘Technomoral Financial Agent: Ethics in the Fintech Era’ Finance and Common Good, (46-47) :25-42. Download from Observatoire de la Finance webpage |
| 2016 | ‘Wall Street y la (ir)relevancia de la ética. La formación del carácter de los analistas financieros [Wall Street and the (ir)relevance of ethics. The formation of financial analysts’ character’ Rocchi, Marta; Ferrero, Ignacio (2016) ‘Wall Street y la (ir)relevancia de la ética. La formación del carácter de los analistas financieros [Wall Street and the (ir)relevance of ethics. The formation of financial analysts’ character’ Premios de Investigación y Estudio Rafael Termes Carreró, :7-35. Download from Fundació Catalana d’Analistes Financers webpage |
| 2017 | ‘Margin Call: What If John Tuld Were Christian? Thomistic Practical Wisdom in Financial Decision-Making’ Rocchi, Marta and Ferrero, Ignacio and McNulty, Robert (2017) ‘Margin Call: What If John Tuld Were Christian? Thomistic Practical Wisdom in Financial Decision-Making’ Working Paper U. Navarra, 01/17. Download from University of Navarra Working Papers webpage |
| 2016 | ‘Recensión: Melé’ Rocchi, Marta (2016) ‘Recensión: Melé’ Revista Empresa y Humanismo, XIX (2) :181-183. |
| 2014 | ‘Systematic Shared Value: Expanding Porter and Kramer’s Creating Shared Value’ Rocchi, Marta and Ferrero, Ignacio (2014) ‘Systematic Shared Value: Expanding Porter and Kramer’s Creating Shared Value’ Working Paper U. Navarra, 07/14. Download from University of Navarra Working Papers webpage |
Conference Publications
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2019 | European Academy of Management Ferrero, Ignacio; Rocchi, Marta; Pellegrini, Massimiliano; Reichert, Elizabeth (2019) Practical Wisdom: A Virtue for Leaders European Academy of Management. |
Online Articles
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Is Working From Home Making Me a Better Person? Rocchi, M.; Bernacchio, C. RTE Brainstorm. Online Article |
| 2020 | Automating Accounting Ethics. Murphy, B.; Rocchi, M. ACCA . Online Article |
| 2020 | 5 Tips for Third-Level Students Working from Home. Marta Rocchi. RTE Brainstorm. Online Article |
| 2019 | What are Industry 4.0’s ethical challenges? Marta Rocchi. RTE Brainstorm. Online Article |
| 2018 | Il dottore sei tu: diagnosi a portata di smartphone? Rocchi, Marta (2018) Salute Europa. Online Article |
| 2018 | The ethics of business: can a good person be a good trader? Rocchi, M.; Thunder, D. RTE Brainstorm. Online Article |
Guest Associate Editor
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| In progress | Subsidiarity, Freedom, and the Logic of Gift in Business. Martin Schlag, Michael Naughton, Marta Rocchi |
| 2023 | MacIntyrean Virtue Ethics for Organizations, Work and Employment: What More and What Else? Geoff Moore, Caleb Bernacchio, Angus Robson, Marta Rocchi Frontiers in Sociology Editorial: Bernacchio, C., Moore, G., Robson, A., & Rocchi, M. (2023). Editorial: MacIntyrean Virtue Ethics for Organizations, Work and Employment: What More and What Else? Frontiers in Sociology, 8, 1145849. 10.3389/fsoc.2023.1145849 Read the Editorial here |
| 2019 | ‘MacIntyre at 90. Critically Reading Virtue, Flourishing, and Narrative within Tradition’ Marta Rocchi and Robert A. Gahl, Jr. (eds) Acta Philosophica, 28 (2) [special issue] Editorial: Marta Rocchi, Robert A. Gahl, Jr., Presentation, pp. 199-204. With contributions from: Christopher Stephen Lutz, Narrative and the Rationality of Traditions. MacIntyre’s Epistemological Stance, Peter McMylor, MacIntyre’s Critique of the Performative Legitimation of Capitalist Modernity, Sergio Belardinelli, Luigi Cimmino, Il realismo etico di Alasdair MacIntyre: identità e comunità tra le pagine di Dopo la virtù, Sante Maletta, Dario Mazzola, Legge naturale e critica del liberalismo in MacIntyre: aspetti teorici e prospettive critiche, Robert A. Gahl, Jr., MacIntyre on Teleology, Narrative, and Human Flourishing: Towards a Thomistic Narrative Anthropology, Caleb Bernacchio, Alasdair MacIntyre (III), 2011-2018. |
Research Groups Affiliation
| Term | PhD Candidate and Project |
|---|---|
| 2023-2025 | Fellow of the Information Society Law Center University of Milan, Italy. Directors: Giovanni Ziccardi and Simone Bonavita. Link. |
| Since 2023 | Member of the ECRI (Ethics in Finance & Social Value) University of Pais Vasco, Spain. Directors: Leire San-Jose and Jose Domingo Garcia-Merino. Link. |
| Since 2018 | Member of the Irish Institute of Digital Business Dublin City University Business School, Ireland. Directors: Theodore Lynn and Lisa van der Werff. Link. |
| Since 2018 | Member of the Virtue Ethics in Business Research Group University of Navarra, Spain. Director: Alejo Sison. Link. |
PhD Students
| Year started | PhD Candidate and Project |
|---|---|
| 2020-2024 | PhD candidate: Francesco Vincenzo Giarmoleo Affiliation: University of Navarra Co-supervision with Ignacio Ferrero Title: Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: A Virtue Ethics Proposal Viva date: September 23, 2024. |
| 2023-in progress | PhD candidate: Santiago Martínez Alamar Affiliation: University of Navarra Co-supervision with Ignacio Ferrero Project: Ethical Decision-Making: The Role of Reason and Emotions |
Research areas
| Ethics of Artificial Intelligence | Keywords: artificial intelligence, human work, future of work, human moral agency. |
| Virtue Ethics in Business and Management | Keywords: virtue ethics, MacIntyre, finance ethics, first-person ethics, practice. |
| Teaching Business Ethics | Keywords: student-centered approach; first person approach to ethics |
Conference Presentation (under construction)
| Year | Conference | Presentation |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | ||
| 2022 | ||
| 2021 | ||
| 2020 | ||
| 2019 | ||
| 2018 |
Marta Rocchi, PhD 