How the Love of Truth Affects the Role of the Researcher : References to the “Third Mission” of Universities and References to the Field of Business Economics Studies

Abstract

This chapter discusses and highlights the role and, therefore, the responsibility of the researcher, of the scholar, in the context of a university institution, which is not usually limited to knowledge, but also to its transfer into the sphere—in primis—of the universitas studiorum, as well as scolarium (in addition to magistrorum), starting with the concept of “truth” and, subsequently, that of “love”1. Certain prescriptive considerations, which could involve the aforementioned role and, therefore, the ethics of the modus operandi of the researcher in question, with inevitable references to the purposes of their work and their goal of progress for mankind and society, will tendentially be implicit both throughout and subsequently. Regarding society and broadening the perspective from the individual researcher to the organisation to which they belong, we also take a look at the Third Mission of universities as a privileged area in which to exercise the aforementioned responsibility at an institutional level and, moreover, with a focus on business and economic studies, which represent the author’s field of scientific interest.