IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibf/gjbres/v11y2017i3p87-104.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Impact And Online Communication In B-Corps

Author

Listed:
  • Giorgia Nigri
  • Laura Michelini
  • Cecilia Grieco

Abstract

The main aim of the present study is to empirically analyze the relationship between the level of social impact and the level of online communication in B Corps. To reach this aim, the following indices were developed: the SIA index (based on the overall score of the Benefit Impact Assessment) and the SIA online communication index (based on a mix of variables selected from the literature). An analysis of 400 BCorp websites was then carried out to highlight companies’ behaviors and point out differences between the US and the EU. The research provides a matrix in which four main typologies of B Corps are identified: newbies, overexposed, undervalued and best practice. The research highlights that a high number of companies, especially in the European context, have not yet fully understood the potential of being a B Corp and that there is room for improvement. Companies can adopt the matrix as a benchmarking tool for a self-evaluation of their position, and identify the required actions to improve their performance

Suggested Citation

  • Giorgia Nigri & Laura Michelini & Cecilia Grieco, 2017. "Social Impact And Online Communication In B-Corps," Global Journal of Business Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 11(3), pages 87-104.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibf:gjbres:v:11:y:2017:i:3:p:87-104
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.theibfr2.com/RePEc/ibf/gjbres/gjbr-v11n3-2017/GJBR-V11N3-2017-7.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Isabelle Maignan & David A Ralston, 2002. "Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe and the U.S.: Insights from Businesses' Self-presentations," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 33(3), pages 497-514, September.
    2. Terlaak, Ann & King, Andrew A., 2006. "The effect of certification with the ISO 9000 Quality Management Standard: A signaling approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 579-602, August.
    3. 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.
    4. Rafael Bravo & Jorge Matute & José Pina, 2012. "Corporate Social Responsibility as a Vehicle to Reveal the Corporate Identity: A Study Focused on the Websites of Spanish Financial Entities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(2), pages 129-146, May.
    5. Lori Holder-Webb & Jeffrey Cohen & Leda Nath & David Wood, 2009. "The Supply of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures Among U.S. Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(4), pages 497-527, February.
    6. Cecilia Grieco, 2015. "Assessing Social Impact of Social Enterprises," SpringerBriefs in Business, Springer, edition 127, number 978-3-319-15314-8, July.
    7. Mary Ann Glynn & Chad Navis, 2013. "Categories, Identities, and Cultural Classification: Moving Beyond a Model of Categorical Constraint," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(6), pages 1124-1137, September.
    8. Hayagreeva Rao, 1994. "The Social Construction of Reputation: Certification Contests, Legitimation, and the Survival of Organizations in the American Automobile Industry: 1895–1912," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(S1), pages 29-44, December.
    9. Janine Hiller, 2013. "The Benefit Corporation and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 287-301, December.
    10. Shuili Du & Edward Vieira, 2012. "Striving for Legitimacy Through Corporate Social Responsibility: Insights from Oil Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(4), pages 413-427, November.
    11. Kuratko, Donald F. & McMullen, Jeffery S. & Hornsby, Jeffrey S. & Jackson, Chad, 2017. "Is your organization conducive to the continuous creation of social value? Toward a social corporate entrepreneurship scale," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 271-283.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giorgio Mion, 2020. "Organizations with Impact? A Study on Italian Benefit Corporations Reporting Practices and Reporting Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-21, October.
    2. Silvia Cantele & Giacomo Troisi & Bettina Campedelli, 2021. "Le societ? Benefit in Italia: un?analisi sulla diffusione e sulle prassi di rendicontazione," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(2), pages 107-126.
    3. Silvia Blasi & Silvia Rita Sedita, 2022. "Mapping the emergence of a new organisational form: An exploration of the intellectual structure of the B Corp research," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 107-123, January.
    4. 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.
    5. Giorgia Nigri & Mara Del Baldo, 2018. "Sustainability Reporting and Performance Measurement Systems: How do Small- and Medium-Sized Benefit Corporations Manage Integration?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, November.
    6. Elsa Diez-Busto & Lidia Sanchez-Ruiz & Ana Fernandez-Laviada, 2021. "The B Corp Movement: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, February.
    7. Giorgia Nigri & Mara Del Baldo & Armando Agulini, 2020. "Governance and accountability models in Italian certified benefit corporations," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2368-2380, September.

    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. Moroz, Peter W. & Branzei, Oana & Parker, Simon C. & Gamble, Edward N., 2018. "Imprinting with purpose: Prosocial opportunities and B Corp certification," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 117-129.
    2. Andrea Pérez & María del Mar García de los Salmones & Elisa Baraibar-Diez, 2020. "Effects of the Type of CSR Discourse for Utilitarian and Hedonic Services," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-22, June.
    3. Dolores Gallardo-Vázquez & Luis Enrique Valdez-Juárez & José Luis Lizcano-Álvarez, 2019. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Intellectual Capital: Sources of Competitiveness and Legitimacy in Organizations’ Management Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-29, October.
    4. Giorgia Nigri & Mara Del Baldo & Armando Agulini, 2020. "Governance and accountability models in Italian certified benefit corporations," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2368-2380, September.
    5. Jeffery S. McMullen & Katrina M. Brownell & Joel Adams, 2021. "What Makes an Entrepreneurship Study Entrepreneurial? Toward A Unified Theory of Entrepreneurial Agency," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(5), pages 1197-1238, September.
    6. Vincenzo Riso & Mouhcine Tallaki & Enrico Bracci & Silvia Cantele, 2024. "The transition towards benefit corporations: What are the roles for stakeholders?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 904-916, February.
    7. Mauro Sciarelli & Mario Tani & Giovanni Landi & Lorenzo Turriziani, 2020. "CSR perception and financial performance: Evidences from Italian and UK asset management companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 841-851, March.
    8. Silvia Blasi & Silvia Rita Sedita, 2019. "Mapping the emergence of a new research field: an exploration of the intellectual structure of the B Corp research," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0236, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    9. Domenico Sardanelli & Francesca Conte & Agostino Vollero & Alfonso Siano, 2021. "CSR signals: exploring their use in controversial industries," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2021(3), pages 249-266, September.
    10. Heather Markham Kim & Kyuha Cho & Younggin Choi & Junghoon (Jay) Lee & Jinsoo Hwang, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in the Casino Industry: A Content Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-16, October.
    11. Galli, Davide & Torelli, Riccardo & Tibiletti, Veronica, 2021. "Signaling the Adoption of the Benefit Corporation Model: A Step towards Transparency," OSF Preprints ar28u, Center for Open Science.
    12. Alexandra Kocurikova & Jan Kopriva & Libena Tetrevova, 2024. "Unlocking the Power of Corporate Social Responsibility Communication in the Online Sphere: A Systematic Exploration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-22, March.
    13. 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.
    14. Fabrizio Zerbini, 2017. "CSR Initiatives as Market Signals: A Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 1-23, November.
    15. Matthias S. Fifka & Maria Drabble, 2012. "Focus and Standardization of Sustainability Reporting – A Comparative Study of the United Kingdom and Finland," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(7), pages 455-474, November.
    16. Hsin-Hsuan Lee & Willemijn Dolen & Ans Kolk, 2013. "On the Role of Social Media in the ‘Responsible’ Food Business: Blogger Buzz on Health and Obesity Issues," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(4), pages 695-707, December.
    17. Scott D. Graffin & Andrew J. Ward, 2010. "Certifications and Reputation: Determining the Standard of Desirability Amidst Uncertainty," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 331-346, April.
    18. Changhee Lee & Dan Palmon & Ari Yezegel, 2018. "The Corporate Social Responsibility Information Environment: Examining the Value of Financial Analysts’ Recommendations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 279-301, June.
    19. Rory McDonald & Cheng Gao, 2019. "Pivoting Isn’t Enough? Managing Strategic Reorientation in New Ventures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 1289-1318, November.
    20. Giorgio Mion & Cristian R. Loza Adaui, 2020. "Understanding the purpose of benefit corporations: an empirical study on the Italian case," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-15, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Benefit Corporations; B Corps; Social Impact Assessment; Stakeholder Communication; Corporate Social Responsibility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ibf:gjbres:v:11:y:2017:i:3:p:87-104. 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: Mercedes Jalbert (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.