"There is a long-standing superstition that values calls for sacrifices in real life to be compensated by God in the eternal one. Consequently the picture of an honest follower of certain moral rules has been strongly associated with poverty, while success in creation of business and wealth has had to be based on a cynical approach to life. This idea refers much more to corporations than to individual people, since the former are often viewed to a greater extent as mechanical constructions rather than groups of people. Even if business founders, like John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie or Andrew Mellon, claimed to follow clear moral guidelines, they faced an outcry from their critics, who insisted that such declarations were nothing but a mocking attempt to cover the reality of an undisturbed drive for money and power. Now, when some corporations, however changed, have existed and succeeded for more than 100 years, researchers can analyse in depth the foundations of their development, looking at the factors holding such organisations together and stimulating their development. This article attempts to show how the business sciences have evolved, starting from a completely technical approach to corporate structures and functioning, gradually recognising the importance of more tacit factors, and finally getting to the point at which values are considered to create the fabric of modern firms."(...)