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This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes interest in the ethics of economists and to advance a moral conception of the economic science. It focuses on the ethical behavior of economists and thus mainly concerned with deontology and professional economics ethics. The book discusses the education and training of the ‘ethical economist’: what it means to train and educate an ethical economist and what is needed for economics to become an ethical profession. It examines the ethics of econometric research and the categorical mistake made by some economists when considering that ethics is to be left for business, government and policymakers and not for the econometrician. The book presents the philosophical arguments for the removal of normativity and normative analysis from economics and what the implications of this issue are on the personal responsibility of economists.

Economists' role in society has always been an uneasy one, and in recent years the ethicality of the profession and its practitioners has been questioned more than ever. This collection of essays is the first to investigate the multifaceted nature of what forms economists' ethical and economic views.Bringing together work from international contributors, The Ethical Formation of Economists explores the ways in which economists are influenced in their training and career, examining how this can explain their individual ethical stances as economists. The book suggests that if we can better understand what is making economists think and act as they do, considering ethicality in the process, we might all be better placed to implement changes. The intent is not to exonerate economists from personal responsibility, but to highlight how considering the circumstances that have helped shape economists' views can help to address issues. It is argued that it is important to understand these influences, as without such insights, the demonization of economists is too easily adapted as a stance by society as well as too easily dismissed by economists. This book will be of great interest to those studying and researching in the fields of economics, ethics, philosophy and sociology. It also seeks to bring an ethical debate within and about economics and to cause change in the practical reasoning of economists.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is concerned with topics in the history of economic thought and economic philosophy. It discusses John Davis’s work in history of economic thought and economic philosophy and describes his work in social economics and related topics. The book examines aspects of Davis’s approach to “seeking justice: the promotion of care and capabilities”. It explores the impact that computer simulation has had on economic methodology. Davis’s roots in political economy and social economics suggest that as with other social sciences and science generally, economics is unavoidably value-laden. All in all, Davis has generated an extraordinarily prodigious scholarly output on an extremely wide range of important topics, and this only takes into account his work directly related to the history of economic thought and economic philosophy.

Purpose - The rising need to innovate and obtain knowledge from more distant knowledge sources calls for new innovation strategies and a better integration of other external actors who lie outside the traditional automotive supply chain. Such an open innovation strategy challenges organizational boundaries both on the firm and supply chain level, yet our understanding of the functioning of such boundaries and how they can be managed to allow for purposive knowledge flows is limited. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach - In a longitudinal case study, the authors trace the development of the first open innovation network in the German automotive industry over a period of five years based on archival data, semi-structured interviews, and field observations. Findings - While the automotive industry is advanced in collaborating with suppliers for innovation, routines for assessing and integrating ideas from sources outside the supply chain are still underdeveloped. The authors show which current knowledge boundaries pose obstacles for open innovation initiatives in this industry, and how they could be mediated through the involvement of gatekeepers. Originality/value - The authors challenge and clarify the notion of the "permeability of organizational boundaries" in the open innovation literature and investigate the role of gatekeepers for open innovation.