IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/erjour/v10y2020i4p25n5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Benefit Corporations Approach to Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosure: A Focus on Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Sciarelli Mauro

    (Department of Economics, Management, Institutions (DEMI), University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy)

  • Cosimato Silvia

    (Department of Economics, Management, Institutions (DEMI), University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy)

  • Landi Giovanni

    (Department of Economics, Management, Institutions (DEMI), University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy)

Abstract

Over the last decades, Benefit Corporations arouse as a new corporate structure, alternative to traditional ones and pointing to offer a new approach to the management of business and sustainability issues. These companies' activities are statutory aimed at bridging for-profit and no-profit activities; thus, they intentionally and statutory pursue economic purposes together with social and environmental ones, to create a positive impact on economy, society and environment. Even though, Italian and other national laws set some specific disclosure duties for Benefit Corporations, especially in terms of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues, the literature still calls for further research on the topic. Therefore, this paper is aimed at contributing to bridge this gap, investigating the way Italian Benefit Corporations approach ESG disclosure. To this end, an exploratory analysis has been conducted, implementing a qualitative method, based on a multiple case study strategy. Even though the descriptive nature of the study, the achieved findings pointed out that the Benefit Corporation structure not necessarily implies a better approach to ESG.

Suggested Citation

  • Sciarelli Mauro & Cosimato Silvia & Landi Giovanni, 2020. "Benefit Corporations Approach to Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosure: A Focus on Italy," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 10(4), pages 1-25, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:erjour:v:10:y:2020:i:4:p:25:n:5
    DOI: 10.1515/erj-2019-0318
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/erj-2019-0318
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/erj-2019-0318?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nancy E. Landrum & Brian Ohsowski, 2018. "Identifying Worldviews on Corporate Sustainability: A Content Analysis of Corporate Sustainability Reports," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 128-151, January.
    2. Patrizia Gazzola & Daniele Grechi & Paola Ossola & Enrica Pavione, 2019. "Certified Benefit Corporations as a new way to make sustainable business: The Italian example," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1435-1445, November.
    3. Choi, Nia & Majumdar, Satyajit, 2014. "Social entrepreneurship as an essentially contested concept: Opening a new avenue for systematic future research," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 363-376.
    4. James Guthrie & Federica Farneti, 2008. "GRI Sustainability Reporting by Australian Public Sector Organizations," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(6), pages 361-366, December.
    5. Pedro Soto-Acosta & Diana-Maria Cismaru & Elena-Mădălina Vătămănescu & Raluca Silvia Ciochină, 2016. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship in SMEs: A Business Performance Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-12, April.
    6. Cohen, Boyd & Winn, Monika I., 2007. "Market imperfections, opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 29-49, January.
    7. Parrish, Bradley D., 2010. "Sustainability-driven entrepreneurship: Principles of organization design," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 510-523, September.
    8. Changhong Zhao & Yu Guo & Jiahai Yuan & Mengya Wu & Daiyu Li & Yiou Zhou & Jiangang Kang, 2018. "ESG and Corporate Financial Performance: Empirical Evidence from China’s Listed Power Generation Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-18, July.
    9. Michelle J. Stecker, 2016. "Awash in a Sea of Confusion: Benefit Corporations, Social Enterprise, and the Fear of “Greenwashing”," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 373-381, April.
    10. Jeffery S. McMullen & Benjamin J. Warnick, 2016. "Should We Require Every New Venture to Be a Hybrid Organization?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 630-662, June.
    11. Chitra Sriyani De Silva Lokuwaduge & Kumudini Heenetigala, 2017. "Integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Disclosure for a Sustainable Development: An Australian Study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 438-450, May.
    12. Garrett A. McBrayer, 2018. "Does persistence explain ESG disclosure decisions?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1074-1086, November.
    13. Pablo Muñoz & Boyd Cohen, 2018. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Research: Taking Stock and looking ahead," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 300-322, March.
    14. Brigitte Hoogendoorn & Peter Zwan & Roy Thurik, 2019. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Risk," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(4), pages 1133-1154, July.
    15. Wendy Stubbs, 2018. "Examining the Interplay of Social and Market Logics in Hybrid Business Models: A Case Study of Australian B Corps," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: Lars Moratis & Frans Melissen & Samuel O. Idowu (ed.), Sustainable Business Models, chapter 0, pages 63-84, Springer.
    16. Mara Del Baldo, 2019. "Acting as a benefit corporation and a B Corp to responsibly pursue private and public benefits. The case of Paradisi Srl (Italy)," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-18, December.
    17. Pacheco, Desirée F. & Dean, Thomas J. & Payne, David S., 2010. "Escaping the green prison: Entrepreneurship and the creation of opportunities for sustainable development," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 464-480, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Presley K. Wesseh & Boqiang Lin & Yixuan Zhang & Preslyn Sharon Wesseh, 2024. "Sustainable entrepreneurship: When does environmental compliance improve corporate performance?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3203-3221, May.
    2. Matthew P. Johnson & Stefan Schaltegger, 2020. "Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development: A Review and Multilevel Causal Mechanism Framework," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(6), pages 1141-1173, November.
    3. Trin Thananusak, 2019. "Science Mapping of the Knowledge Base on Sustainable Entrepreneurship, 1996–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-20, June.
    4. Aikaterini Argyrou & Nicolas Chevrollier & Andre Nijhof, 2023. "The versatile role of sustainable market entrepreneurs in market transformation: An intervention framework for institutional change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 259-273, January.
    5. Shengli Dai & Hongyan Xue & Yuan Jiang & Wei Zhang & Xin Zhang, 2018. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship Team Scale Development: A Complex Systems Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    6. Hellen Lillian Atieno Dawo & Thomas B. Long & Gjalt de Jong, 2023. "Sustainable entrepreneurship and legitimacy building in protected areas: Overcoming distinctive barriers through activism," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 72-95, January.
    7. Matthias Filser & Sascha Kraus & Norat Roig-Tierno & Norbert Kailer & Ulrike Fischer, 2019. "Entrepreneurship as Catalyst for Sustainable Development: Opening the Black Box," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-18, August.
    8. Christine Volkmann & Klaus Fichter & Magnus Klofsten & David B. Audretsch, 2021. "Sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems: an emerging field of research," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1047-1055, February.
    9. Jip Leendertse & Frank J. van Rijnsoever & Chris P. Eveleens, 2021. "The sustainable start‐up paradox: Predicting the business and climate performance of start‐ups," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 1019-1036, February.
    10. Ronald Weber Kirst & Miriam Borchardt & Maurício Nunes Macedo de Carvalho & Giancarlo Medeiros Pereira, 2021. "Best of the world or better for the world? A systematic literature review on benefit corporations and certified B corporations contribution to sustainable development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(6), pages 1822-1839, November.
    11. Matthew P. Johnson & Jacob Hörisch, 2022. "Reinforcing or counterproductive behaviors for sustainable entrepreneurship? The influence of causation and effectuation on sustainability orientation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 908-920, March.
    12. Sanjay Chaudhary & Puneet Kaur & Hind Alofaysan & Jantje Halberstadt & Amandeep Dhir, 2023. "Connecting the dots? Entrepreneurial ecosystems and sustainable entrepreneurship as pathways to sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5935-5951, December.
    13. Engel, Yuval & Ramesh, Anusha & Steiner, Nick, 2020. "Powered by compassion: The effect of loving-kindness meditation on entrepreneurs' sustainable decision-making," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(6).
    14. Eduard-Gabriel Ceptureanu & Sebastian-Ion Ceptureanu & Mihai Cristian Orzan & Ovidiu Niculae Bordean & Violeta Radulescu, 2017. "Empirical Study on Sustainable Opportunities Recognition. A Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Joinery Industry Analysis Using Augmented Sustainable Development Process Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-36, September.
    15. Daniel Arenas & Marta Strumińska‐Kutra & Paolo Landoni, 2020. "Walking the tightrope and stirring things up: Exploring the institutional work of sustainable entrepreneurs," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3055-3071, December.
    16. Torbjörn Ljungkvist & Jim Andersén, 2021. "A taxonomy of ecopreneurship in small manufacturing firms: A multidimensional cluster analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(2), pages 1374-1388, February.
    17. Heshmati, Almas, 2015. "A Review of the Circular Economy and its Implementation," IZA Discussion Papers 9611, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Desirée Knoppen & Louise Knight, 2022. "Pursuing sustainability advantage: The dynamic capabilities of born sustainable firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1789-1813, May.
    19. Valery Chistov & Nekane Aramburu & María Eugenia Fabra Florit & Iñaki Peña‐Legazkue & Pauline Weritz, 2023. "Sustainability orientation and firm growth as ventures mature," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5314-5331, December.
    20. Denise Fischer & Malte Brettel & René Mauer, 2020. "The Three Dimensions of Sustainability: A Delicate Balancing Act for Entrepreneurs Made More Complex by Stakeholder Expectations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 87-106, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:erjour:v:10:y:2020:i:4:p:25:n:5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.