Received: 13 July 2022
Revised: 3 November 2022
Accepted: 11 December 2022
DOI: 10.1002/csr.2440
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Mission alignment with employees and financiers: Probing into the workings of B Corp certification Valerie Paelman
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Philippe Van Cauwenberge
Faculty of Economics and Business Economics, Department of Accountancy, Corporate Finance and Taxation, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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Heidi Vander Bauwhede
Abstract Sustainable enterprises are becoming more popular and play an important role in tackling environmental and social challenges. Their hybrid nature, that is, the combi-
Correspondence Philippe Van Cauwenberge, Faculty of Economics and Business Economics, Department of Accountancy, Corporate Finance and Taxation, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersplein 7, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Email: philippe.vancauwenberge@ugent.be
nation of financial and societal goals, makes them prone to external legitimacy issues and competing internal logics, which results in mission drift. We investigate whether and how B Corp certification helps remedy mission drift by conducting semistructured interviews with 16 key employees in 13 Dutch and Belgian certified B Corps from various industries. Our findings show that B Corp certification helps ingrain the mission into human resource management, in both the recruitment and employee engagement processes, which contributes to internal alignment and lowers the risk of mission drift. In addition, certification helps articulate the company's dual nature to finance providers and find financing sources that relate more with the mission. KEYWORDS
certified B corps, hybrid enterprise, mission drift, sustainability certification, sustainable enterprise
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I N T RO DU CT I O N
and environmental problems, as has been recognized by the United Nations (Kirst et al., 2021; Tabares, 2021).
Sustainable or mission-driven enterprises are classified as hybrid
The B Corp movement, which started in 2006, aims to catalyze
enterprises because they are committed to delivering positive envi-
the emergence and growth of sustainable companies by (a) certifying
ronmental and social impacts while achieving their profit objectives
companies that demonstrate high social and environmental perfor-
(Kirst et al., 2021; Nigri et al., 2020a). This hybridity makes them
mance, (b) advocating legal forms that are adapted to the dual mis-
prone to external legitimacy issues and competing internal logics,
sions of companies, (c) accelerating impact investing through a rating
which might cause mission drift whereby enterprises forfeit their
system, and (d) sharing success stories of businesses that combine
social or sustainable mission in favor of financial goals or vice versa
profit and purpose (Cao et al., 2017). The movement has grown rap-
(Esposito et al., 2022). This study aims to examine how certified B
idly worldwide (Kirst et al., 2021), as more than 5000 companies cur-
Corps, which are sustainable enterprises that have their social or envi-
rently have a B Corp certificate (B Lab, 2022a). From an academic
ronmental efforts certified by B Lab, engage with key providers of
perspective, interest in the B Corp movement is growing (Diez-Busto
labor and capital (RQ1), and whether and how B Corp certification
et al., 2021; Kirst et al., 2021). Various studies have analyzed the
helps prevent mission drift (RQ2). Specifically, we aim to understand
emergence and characteristics of certified B Corps (Harjoto
whether certification ingrains the mission into human resource man-
et al., 2019; Hickman et al., 2014), examined the motivations to pur-
agement and makes the choice of financing modes and providers
sue certification, and investigated the implications of certification for
more aligned with the mission. As the number of sustainable enter-
sustainability strategy (Kim et al., 2016; Villela et al., 2021; Wilburn &
prises is rapidly growing, this issue is timely and important because
Wilburn, 2015) and the financial and non-financial performance of B
sustainable enterprises play an important role in addressing societal
Corps (Chen & Kelly, 2015; Gazzola et al., 2019; Parker et al., 2019;
Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag. 2022;1–13.
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