Call for Papers - Gift-giving and Management: A Philosophical Perspective
Participating journal: Philosophy of Management
Open for submissions
Submission deadline: 28 November 2025
Check out the full Call for Papers at:
Call for Papers - Gift-giving and Management: A Philosophical Perspective | SpringerLink
Introductory outline
Through this Special Issue we aim to introduce the logic of gift to offer a thoughtful perspective to consider relationships by examining both their network structure and their content, with a particular emphasis on their meaning. Thus, we aim to provide management scholars with new ways of understanding acts of giving, generosity, and solidarity. This approach moves beyond the often simplistic and incomplete explanations rooted in self-interest, individualism, or obligation and sense of duty. The logic of gift was initially proposed by Marcel Mauss (1950), who explored this issue from an anthropological and sociological point of view. This logic is based on three different acts: first an act of 'giving', second an act of 'receiving', performed by the recipient of the initial gift, and third an act of 'giving back', where the recipient responds, driven by a sense of obligation rooted in reciprocity. The primary motivation characterizing this logic is the desire to create and strengthen social relationships rather than purely economic or utilitarian factors. In more recent years, the logic of gift has been applied by various scholars also within social groups where fundamental social bonds are strong, such as in organizations (Baviera et al., 2016; Dolfsma et al., 2009; Faldetta, 2011; Faldetta & Paternostro, 2011; Frémeaux & Michelson, 2011; Grassl, 2011).
As Baviera et al. (2016) emphasized, 'meaningful interpersonal relationships are characterized by uncalculated acts of giving and receiving' (p. 160) in organizations. Following the unconditional gift paradigm, the gift is generative of meaningful relationships since it 'binds people together' (Faldetta, 2011, p. 71). Even if the gift is free, there is a desire in human beings to answer that call coming from the gift of the other (Levinas, 1972). The development of meaningful relationships in the workplace can lead to people human flourishing a work (Sferrazzo & Ruffini, 2021) and to the 'fulfilment of the community', transcending individual interests (Faldetta, 2018, p. 210).
Starting from this premise, we invite scholars interested in studying the logic of gift applied to management and organizations. More specifically, and in line with the scope of the journal Philosophy of Management, we seek research that investigates the philosophical foundations of gift-giving, to deepen and integrate the anthropological and sociological Maussian approach. In this sense, we invite scholars to go beyond the well-known philosophical approach provided by Derrida (1991), according to whom the only gift is a 'pure' one, which requires that both the giver and the receiver remain unaware of the act of giving. Indeed, if either party becomes conscious of the gift, it will lose its purity and cease to be a genuine gift. However, if both individuals are completely unaware of the exchange, the gift itself would not exist at all. What we are looking for are philosophical approaches that can be used in the management field, in order to give substance to a relational view of the logic of the gift. In this sense, the logic of gift, and other related notions such as gratuitousness, reciprocity, relationality, and alterity, can be a way to adopt a new conceptual lens to think about human relations in business organizations.
Topics of interest
The following topics represent a non-exhaustive list of suggested directions for addressing this research gap:
- What is the relation between gift-giving and management?
- What is the nature of the firm from a gift-giving point of view?
- What is the logic of gift in corporate philanthropy?
- What are the motivations of giving and which consequences of giving should we expect in a for-profit environment?
- How can the logic of gift influence employees' and managers' behaviors?
- How can the gift-giving paradigm be connected to the concepts of (to mention a few) altruism, solidarity, generosity, fraternity, reciprocity, cooperation, and friendship?
- What is the dark side of gift-giving (asymmetry of power, bribery, corruption, violence)?
- How can the gift-giving paradigm shape and impact workplace relationships?
- How can the gift-giving logic relate to customer relationships?
- What are the tensions and paradoxes that can emerge in applying the unconditional gift paradigm to the management field?
- How can the gift-giving paradigm be connected to the environmental sustainability topic?
- How can the logic of gift shape management education?
Submission process and deadline
• Submissions window: July 1st, 2025 to November 28, 2025.
• Manuscripts submitted to this special issue should adhere to the Philosophy of Management journal's aims and scope, as well as to contributor guidelines for submitting a paper. The manuscript length should be 8,000-12,000 words (for a standard original article).
• Submissions must be original and unpublished works that are not concurrently under review for publication elsewhere.
• Papers should be submitted to the Philosophy of Management online submission system >Editorial Manager®, with explicit reference to this special issue.
• For any query about this SI please write to Guglielmo Faldetta guglielmo.faldetta@unikore.it
Important Information
Submission Guidelines to Authors
Peer Review Policy, Process and Guidance
Peer-Reviewer Selection
Editorial Manager®
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Cristina Neesham
Newcastle University Business School /
Swinburne School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship
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