 |
[email protected] |
 |
3275638434 |
 |
 |
| Paper Publishing WeChat |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Why Becoming a B Corp? A Discussion and Some Reflections
Zeila Occhipinti
Full-Text PDF
XML 678 Views
DOI:10.17265/1548-6583/2023.01.002
University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
In the late 1980s, the prevailing corporate model usually depicted companies as economic entities pursuing shareholders’ profit maximisation interests without a thought for the consequences of this behaviour on the local community and environment. However, over the last decades, corporate scandals challenged that corporate model’s validity and paved the way for a sustainable corporate model. The latter emphasises a triple bottom line approach that incorporates social, economic, and environmental objectives. By implementing a sustainable corporate model, companies achieve both economic and social goals in a balanced approach. This research investigates the B Corporation (B Corp) certification system, which helps companies implement a sustainable corporate model voluntarily. B Corp certification is a badge signal that companies’ business model adheres to ethical standards and meets socially conscious stakeholders’ expectations. Our research aims to provide a deep contextual understanding of the determinants and implications of the B Corp certification’s adoption. We adopt a semantic approach to review and systematise management and accounting literature on Certified B Corporations (B Corps) through institutional theory’s lenses, which help us explain why firms decide voluntarily to become B Corps.
B Corp, sustainable corporate model, community, environment, hybrid organisation
Journal of Modern Accounting and Auditing, Jan.-Feb. 2023, Vol. 19, No. 1, 23-30, doi: 10.17265/1548-6583/2023.01.002.
Alonso-Martínez, D., De Marchi, V., & Di Maria, E. (2020). Which country characteristics support corporate social performance? Sustainable Development, 28, 670-684.
B Corp. (2020). B Corporation official website. Retrieved from www.bcorporation.net (accessed on 4 Aug. 2020)
Battilana, J., & Dorado, S. (2010). Building sustainable hybrid organizations: The case of commercial microfinance organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 53(6), 1419-1440.
Bianchi, C., Reyes, V., & Devenin, V. (2020). Consumer motivations to purchase from benefit corporations (B Corps). Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(3), 1445-1453.
Chen, X., & Kelly, T. F. (2015). B-Corps a growing form of social enterprise: Tracing their progress and assessing their performance. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 22(1), 102-114.
Cornelissen, J. P. (2017). Preserving theoretical divergence in management research: Why the explanatory potential of qualitative research should be harnessed rather than suppressed. Journal of Management Studies, 54(3), 368-383.
Crane, A., Matten, D., & Spence, L. J. (2008). Corporate social responsibility: Readings and cases in global context. London: Routledge.
Cuerva, M. C., Triguero-Cano, A., & Córcoles, D. (2014). Drivers of green and non-green innovation: Empirical evidence in Low-Tech SMEs. Journal of Cleaner Production, 68, 104-113.
Deegan, C. (2014). Financial accounting theory (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill Education.
De Marchi, V., & Grandinetti, R. (2013). Knowledge strategies for environmental innovations: The case of Italian manufacturing firms. Journal of Knowledge Management, 17(4), 569-582.
DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective ratinality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 146-160.
El Ghoul, S., Guedhami, O., & Kim, Y. (2017). Country-level institutions, firm value, and the role of corporate social responsibility initiatives. Journal of International Business Studies, 48(3), 360-385.
Friedman, M. (2007). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. In W. C. Zimmerli, M. Holzinger, and K. Richter (Eds.), Corporate ethics and corporate governance (pp. 173-178). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
Gazzola, P., Grechi, D., Ossola, P., & Pavione, E. (2019). Certified benefit corporations as a new way to make sustainable business: The Italian example. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26, 1435-1445.
Haigh, N., Walker, J., Bacq, S., & Kickul, J. (2015). Hybrid organizations: Origins, strategies, impacts, and implications. Californian Management Review, 57(3), 5-12.
Harjoto, M., Laksmana, I., & Yang, Y. W. (2019). Why do companies obtain the B Corporation certification? Social Responsibility Journal, 15(5), 621-639.
Held, V. (2006). The ethics of care: Personal, political and global. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hiller, J. S. (2013). The benefit corporation and corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(2), 287-301.
Hoepner, A., Oikonomou, I., Scholtens, B., & Schroder, M. (2016). The effects of corporate and country sustainability characteristics on the cost of debt: An international investigation. Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, 43(1-2), 158-190.
Honeyman, R., & Jana, T. (2019). The B Corp handbook (2nd ed.). Oakland: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Hybels, R. (1995). On legitimacy, legitimation, and organizations: A critical review and integrative theretical model. Academy of Management, Proceedings, 1995(1), 241-245.
Jackson, G., & Apostolakou, A. (2010). Corporate social responsibility in Western Europe: An institutional mirror or substitute? Journal of Business Ethics, 94(3), 371-394.
Jones, M. T. (1999). The institutional determinants of social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 20(2), 163-179.
Kim, S., Karlesky, M. J., Myers, C. G., & Schifeling, T. (2016). Social responsibility: Why companies are becoming B Corporations. Harvard Business Review, 2-5. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/06/why-companies-are-becoming-b-corporations
Matten, D., & Moon, J. (2008). “Implicit” and “explicit” CSR: A conceptual framework for a comparative understanding of corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 404-424.
Munck, L., Tomiotto, M. F., Santana, A. M., Borges, M., & Corbett, B. A. (2018). To B or not to B: Is the B movement really changing the meaning of business success in Brazilian companies? Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference of the International Association for Management of Technology. Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Rawhouser, H., Cummings, M., & Crane, A. (2015). Benefit corporation legislation and the emergence of a social hybrid category. California Management Review, 57(3), 13-35.
Romi, A., Cook, K. A., & Dixon-Fowler, H. R. (2018). The influence of social responsibility on employee productivity and sales growth. Evidence from certified B Corps. Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 9(4), 392-421.
Roth, F. M. S., & Winkler, I. (2018). B Corp entrepreneurs. Analysing the motivations and values behind running a social business. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Slack, T., & Hinings, C. R. (1994). Institutional pressures & isomorphic change: An empirical test. Organization Studies, 15, 803-827.
Stubbs, W. (2017a). Sustainable entrepreneurship and B Corps. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(3), 331-344.
Stubbs, W. (2017b). Characterising B Corps as a sustainable business model: An exploratory study of B Corps in Australia. Journal of Cleaner Production, 144, 299-312.
Villela, M., Bulgacov, S., & Morgan, G. (2019). B Corp certification and its impact on organizations over time. Journal of Business Ethics, 170, 343-357.