Ethical challenges of the new economy: An agenda of issues

The new economy is a technological revolution involving the information and communication technologies which affects almost all aspects of the economy, business, and our personal lives. The problems it raises for businesses are not radically new, least of all from an ethical viewpoint. However, they deserve particular attention, especially now, in the first years of the 21st century, when we are feeling the full impact of the changes brought about by this technological revolution. In this article, I try to draw a "map" of the main positive and negative ethical challenges raised by the new economy, concentrating on its three basic features: 1) a knowledge- and information-based technological change, 2) which is taking place in real time on a planetary scale (globalization), and 3) which entails a new, flexible, network-based business organization.