Although virtues have gained a firm presence in the theory and practice of corporate management, humility is not ranked as one the chief virtues in the business world. In spite of this, it is an important virtue, contributing to the manager's moral and professional quality and the development of the company's human team. This paper explains the basic traits of humility in general and how they manifest in the manager's life and profession, and shows, within the ethics of virtues, that it is not just a personal desideratum but a fundamental quality of a good manager and good management.

ABSTRACT. This article serves as an introduction to the collection of papers in this monographic issue on ''What the European tradition can teach about Corporate Social Responsibility'' and presents the rationale and the main hypotheses of the project. We maintain that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an ethical concept, that the demands for socially responsible actions have been around since before the Industrial Revolution and that companies have responded to them, especially in Europe, and that the content of CSR has evolved over time, depending on historical, cultural, political, and socio-economic drivers and particular conditions in different countries and also at different points in time. Therefore, there is not -and probably cannot be -a unique, precise definition of CSR: one global standard for CSR is unlikely.

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The central question posed in this paper will be how to organize board composition in order to ensure a responsible corporate governance both from a CSR and a good governance perspective. Adopting a stakeholder approach to corporate governance, we analyze the arguments given by different theoretical approaches for linking specific board composition with financial performance and CSR, and discuss the empirical research conducted. Despite the inconclusive findings of empirical research, it can be argued that diverse stakeholders on the board will promote CSR activities within the firm, but at the same time will increase board capital (which ultimately may lead to a better financial performance). Finally, we propose a model for selecting board members based both on ethical and pragmatic arguments.

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