The Hoffman Center for Business Ethics (HCBE) offers mini-grants to Bentley University faculty to support research and teaching in business ethics. 

We are now accepting applications for our Spring 2024 awards. The due date is February 23^rd, 2024. Decisions will be communicated in early March. More information about the program, and instructions for how to apply, are below.

The HCBE understands business ethics broadly to include topics such as conflicts of interest, corporate social responsibility, corporate political activity, corruption and bribery, data privacy and security, diversity, equity, and inclusion, divestment, ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing, governance and control of firms, labor issues, marketing ethics, meaningful work, the moral limits of markets, the responsible use of technology, sustainability, social entrepreneurship, whistleblowing, and much else. 

Funding can be used to purchase pedagogical materials, host guest speakers, support events and conferences, purchase special equipment, hire research assistants, conduct pilot studies, collect and/or analyze data, travel to conduct research or attend a conference, and more. The maximum dollar amount for an award is $2000.

We particularly encourage proposals that: 

• Have broad social and educational impact
• Produce outcomes suitable for high-quality publications
• Develop ideas suitable for external funding prospects 

Calls for proposals are issued twice per year, once in the fall and once in the spring. Proposals should be no more than two pages in length and should address the following points: 

• Description of topic/project
• Planned outcomes and timeline
• Potential impact/importance of outcomes
• Budget with brief justification

Proposals should contain CVs of all applicants and, if necessary, a reference list (maximum one page). These materials do not count toward the two-page limit.

If awarded, the funds must be expended within 12 months of the award date. Awardees will submit a final report on their activities within one month of spending the award, describing scholarly, educational, and/or external proposal outcomes (maximum one page).

Funding decisions will be made by a committee comprising Bentley faculty associated with the HCBE and members of the HCBE’s advisory board.

All proposals should be sent to Gail Sands. Address inquiries about the program to Jeffrey Moriarty.

The following is a list of all the projects we have supported since the program’s inception in 2022.

Spring 2024

• Christine Liu (Accounting), Reshaping the Workforce: The Unintended Inequalities AI Creates in Corporate Restructuring
• Amanda Sargent (Management) and Victoria Daniel (Management), Developing Family-Supportive Supervisory Practices for Socially Responsible Businesses (Part II)
• Hannah Weiser (Law & Taxation), The Ethics and Legal Implications of Cannabis Advertising

Fall 2023

• Jill Brown (Management), Artificial Intelligence and the Moral Manager
• Jackson Lautier (Mathematical Sciences), On the Convergence of Credit Risk in Current Consumer Automobile Loans
• Fan Zhang (Finance), Play the Rating Game: Deceptive Social Media Reviews in Response to Cyberattacks

Spring 2023

• Marco Marabelli (Computer Information Systems), Ethics and Artificial Intelligence
• Cynthia Clark (Management), Pay Equity Among the Top 100 Firms in Massachusetts
• Aaron Ancell and Arianna Falbo (Philosophy), New Approaches to Business Ethics (NABE): Social, Epistemic, and Feminist Perspectives
• Amanda Sargent (Management), Developing Family-Supportive Supervisory Practices for Socially Responsible Businesses

Fall 2022

• Gang Li, Nadar Asgary, and Effie Stavrulaki (Management), Legitimacy and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Comparative Study of the Oil and Tech Industries
• Jason Zhou (Information Design and Corporate Communication), The Effect of Virtual Reality on Organizational Sustainability Communications