This thesis considers the contribution of the ethics of care in business education, particularly in the context of French "Grandes Ecoles". Our study focuses on the program "Why not me?" (PQPM) set up ten years ago by ESSEC Business School. This program is based on the institutionalization of ESSEC students' community service which consists in mentoring students from underprivileged areas. PQPM is analyzed as a service-learning program that contributes to develop ESSEC students' ethics of care. The results show that the relationships between mentors and protégés have the characteristics of a caring relationship. This mentoring experience has an impact on the capability of ESSEC students to create other caring relationships. The results also suggest that mentoring is relevant to develop cognitive empathy, considered as the ability to put oneself in the place of others. The practical implications of our research exist not only for higher education but also, more generally, for educational systems, health care systems and organizations of any kind. Our research suggests that the ethics of care is a relevant theoretical framework to overcome the opposition between the economic and the social logics, between self-interest and the public interest, between "business as usual" and business ethics.
