Marc A. Cohen, PhD

Much of Professor Cohen’s academic research has focused on trust. Some papers draw out the moral dimension of trust relationships, which is often left out of social science research. Others address the role of trust within the economic system and still others argue for using trust as an organizing principle for businesses and business units.

His project as Faculty Fellow is to connect this literature more directly to management practice, providing practitioners with ideas and tools they need to be more effective.

Professor Cohen has been at Seattle University for twelve years. He teaches a Professional-MBA core course, Managing for Stakeholders; two courses in the executive-MBA program—Building Leadership Vision for the Global Commons and the business strategy capstone course; and also undergraduate courses in ethics and business ethics. He earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and, prior to joining Seattle University, worked in the banking and management consulting industries.

Recent Research:

Cohen, M. (2018). Apology as self-repair. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21(3): 585-598.

Cohen, M. & Peterson, D. (2017). The implicit morality of the market and Joseph Heath’s market failures approach to business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 159(1): 75-88.

Cohen, M. & Dienhart, J. (2013). Moral and amoral conceptions of trust, with an application in organizational ethics. Journal of Business Ethics 112(1): 1-13.

Cohen, M. (2012). Empathy in business ethics education. Journal of Business Ethics Education 9: 359-376.

Cohen, M. (2010). The narrow application of Rawls in business ethics: a political conception of both stakeholder theory and the morality of markets. The Journal of Business Ethics 97(4): 563-579.