Timothy L. Fort
Eveleigh Professor of Business Ethics | Indiana University, Kelley School of Business
Bloomington, IN, UNITED STATES
Expert in in ethical corporate culture - how music, sports, film, business nudge decisions & provide bridges for social issues.
Secondary Titles (1)
- Eveleigh Professorship in Business Ethics
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Biography
Timothy L. Fort holds the Eveleigh Professorship in Business Ethics and is Professor of Business Law & Ethics at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. He received his BA and MA from the University of Notre Dame and his PhD and JD from Northwestern University. He taught at the University of Michigan from 1994-2005 and at George Washington University from 2005-2013.
Fort has written over eighty articles, and fifteen books; he has edited an additional twenty-three books. Two of his books have won the Best Book Award from the Academy of Management for Social Issues. He has won twelve research awards from three different academic associations, the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, the Society for Business Ethics, and the Academy of Management and has served on the editorial boards of the flagship journals of each of these associations. He has also won five teaching awards and has served as academic director for a unique program for players from the National Football League; he also co-taught a course with then-Federal Reserve Chair, Ben Bernanke. He has also served as director of an institute, as department chair, and as an interim associate dean. He has been a coach/consultant for Alexandra, Countess of Fredriksborg (Denmark) in her role as a member of the Board of Directors of Ferring Pharmaceuticals.
Tim’s primary research interest concerns how ethical business conduct can create positive organizational cultures, which in turn foster sustainable peace. He co-chaired a task force on the topic with the U.S. Institute of Peace and helped to develop a program with the U.S. State Department where MBA students served as pro bono consultants to entrepreneurs in conflict-sensitive zones.
He has extended that work to music, sports, and film to create a research stream of “Cultural Foundations of Peace” where cultural artifacts serve as a nudge to make ethical decisions and to provide common ground for individuals who might otherwise disagree on social issues. In that regard, he has organized multiple conferences with faculty from the Jacobs School of Music, co-edited a book, written two articles, and organized a film series with the IU Cinema.
His pre-tenure work on how businesses can be “mediating institutions” is drawn from natural law and from bioathropology integrates leading theories of business ethics and emphasizes optimal corporate culture.
Industry Expertise (2)
Education/Learning
Research
Areas of Expertise (8)
Business Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Compliance
Business & Peace
Impact of the Arts & Sports on Business
Religion & Business
Media Defamation Law
Product Liability
Bioanthropological Understandings of Business Life
Accomplishments (5)
Best Book Award (professional)
2010 Academy of Management.
Faculty Award (professional)
2009 George Washington University Office of Service Learning.
Best Paper Award (professional)
2005 Annual Meeting of The Society for Business Ethics.
Best Paper Award (professional)
2004 Annual Meeting of the Association of Business Simulation and Experiential Learning
Faculty Pioneer Award for Academic Achievement (professional)
2003 World Resources Institute and The Aspen Institute.
Education (4)
Northwestern University: Ph.D., Theology/Business 1995
University of Notre Dame: M.A., Systematic Theology 1984
Northwestern University: J.D., Law 1983
University of Notre Dame: B.A., Government & International Relations 1980
Media Appearances (2)
Money Ball: How Some NFL Players Might Make a Quick Buck
Indianapolis Monthly online
2015-02-01
As with so many mergers, a little networking brought the Kelley School of Business and the NFL Players Association into a huddle to discuss a program for active and retired pro football players. NFLPA staffer Don Davis had studied for his MBA at George Washington University with Tim Fort, now a Kelley professor. After the two reconnected, Davis, a former Patriots linebacker, became enchanted with Bloomington. “Beautiful campus,” he says. “I liked how Kelley was separate and unique, yet intertwined in the rest of the campus.” Ultimately, the availability of both online and residency options sold the NFLPA on IU...
A Conversation On Corporate Social Responsibility
Forbes online
2014-01-09
“Business For Peace” (United Nations Global Compact): Will business staples – impact investment, infrastructure, trade, jobs, anti-corruption and improved quality of life – be enough? For years, the issues of commerce have seemed completely removed from left-oriented topics defined by the peace movement. However, with groundbreaking work by business scholars such as Prof. Tim Fort (Kelley School of Business, Indiana University) on the positive correlation between commerce, peace and engagement, and with this association by the highest-level multilateral institutions such as the UN, capitalism suddenly sits side-by-side as a partner with the peace movement...
Event Appearances (4)
Tool of the Devil or Instrument of Peace: How Business Can Foster Peace and Religious Dialogue
Ohio State University conference on Religion and Peacemaking Columbus, OH
2012-01-01
The Idea of Business and Peace
The Olso Summit Olso, Norway
2011-01-01
Corporate Foreign Policy
Council on Foreign Relations Washington, DC
2011-01-01
Keynote Address for Money Makers as Peacemakers
Swisspeace Annual Conference Basel, Switzerland
2010-01-01
Articles (5)
Sustainable Cybersecurity: Applying Lessons from the Green Movement to Managing Cyber Attacks
University of Illinois Law Review
2016 The multifaceted cyber threat is increasingly impacting the bottom lines of firms and is spilling over into larger issues of geopolitical importance including international security. Firms, in particular managers and boards of directors, are at the epicenter of this storm, but ...
How Businesses Can Promote Cyber Peace
University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law
2014 Multifaceted cyber threats are increasingly impacting the bottom lines of firms, and spilling over into larger issues of geopolitical importance, including international security.
Gentle Commerce
Business, Peace and Sustainable Development
2014 In the developing field of business and peace, much attention is given to the role of business in conflict-sensitive zones. While fully applauding such work, this essay suggests that it is also important to attend to incremental improvements in business conduct that are also associated with attributes of relatively peaceful societies.
Corporations as Agents of Social Change: Individual, Interpersonal, Institutional, and Environmental Dynamics
Academy of Management Review
2007 Over the past two decades, there have been a growing number of corporations, both within and beyond the United States, engaging in activities that promote positive social change. The papers in this special topic forum examine corporate social change agency at the micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis.
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