IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pdn/dispap/168.html

Beyond The Badge: Exploring The Connection Between Sustainable Business Certifications And Employee Satisfaction

Author

Listed:
  • Malte Bau,

    (Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg)

  • Sumaya Islam

    (Paderborn University)

  • Michael Wunsch

    (University of Bayreuth)

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between sustainability certifications and employee satisfaction by conceptualizing certifications as external signals and internal organizational resources. Drawing on signaling theory and the resource-based view (RBV), we analyze a dataset of 173 certified firms and a control group of 20,022 firms, combining certification data from B Corp and Economy for the Common Good (EconGood) with reviews from kununu, the leading employer review platform (ERP) in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). Both certifications are Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) and have scoring dimensions with a focus on workers. Using ANOVA, regressions, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), we compare the association between certifications and employee evaluation to test whether these two signal types indeed match. We find that certified companies are evaluated better by their employees compared to non-certified companies. However, we do not find an association between the scores achieved in certifications and employee evaluations. CFA reveals a significant but moderate correlation between the constructs measured by the ERP and the worker dimensions of the certifications, indicating partial conceptual overlap. Our results contribute to organizational behavior and corporate social responsibility literature as we identify a decoupling of external certification metrics from internal employee evaluations. We point to the need for companies to ensure that their commitments to sustainability match the experience perceived by employees and provide ethically relevant insights into ways in which organizations can enhance the credibility of their sustainability claims. In this way, our study advances theory, as it combines the RBV and the signaling view to explain why external signals for sustainability may not be in line with employee evaluations, thus enriching the conceptual understanding of authenticity in CSR.

Suggested Citation

  • Malte Bau, & Sumaya Islam & Michael Wunsch, 2026. "Beyond The Badge: Exploring The Connection Between Sustainable Business Certifications And Employee Satisfaction," Working Papers Dissertations 168, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pdn:dispap:168
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://groups.uni-paderborn.de/wp-wiwi/RePEc/pdf/dispap/DP168.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emilio Marti & Martin Fuchs & Mark R. DesJardine & Rieneke Slager & Jean‐Pascal Gond, 2024. "The Impact of Sustainable Investing: A Multidisciplinary Review," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(5), pages 2181-2211, July.
    2. Ting-Ting Li & Kai Wang & Toshiyuki Sueyoshi & Derek D. Wang, 2021. "ESG: Research Progress and Future Prospects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-28, October.
    3. Catherine Truss & Lynda Gratton & Veronica Hope‐Hailey & Patrick McGovern & Philip Stiles, 1997. "Soft and Hard Models of Human Resource Management: A Reappraisal," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 53-73, January.
    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. Richard Yeaw Chong Seow, 2024. "Determinants of environmental, social, and governance disclosure: A systematic literature review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 2314-2330, March.
    2. Bendig, David & Schulz, Colin & Möhwald, Maximilian & Pollok, Patrick, 2025. "Fear the loss or welcome the gains? How stock options influence CEO risk-taking in corporate cleantech investments," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 40(2).
    3. Ajithakumari Vijayappan Nair Biju & Snehith Jacob Kodiyatt & P. P. Nithi Krishna & Geetha Sreelekshmi, 2023. "ESG sentiments and divergent ESG scores: suggesting a framework for ESG rating," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(12), pages 1-21, December.
    4. Mohamed Marie & Baolei Qi & Ali Meftah Gerged & Haitham Nobanee, 2024. "Exploring Environmental, Social and Governance research in the wake of COVID‐19: A bibliometric analysis of current trends and recommendations for future research," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(6), pages 6131-6149, November.
    5. Wei Liu & Han Yan, 2025. "The evaluation of ESG strategy implementation effect based on performance prism: evidence from the industrial and commercial bank of China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Pei‐Gi Shu & Sue‐Jane Chiang & Tian‐Yu Wu, 2024. "Board network and ESG performance: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(6), pages 5709-5729, November.
    7. Bita Mashayekhi & Kaveh Asiaei & Zabihollah Rezaee & Amin Jahangard & Milad Samavat & Saeid Homayoun, 2024. "The relative importance of ESG pillars: A two‐step machine learning and analytical framework," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 5404-5420, October.
    8. Komalpreet Kaur & Daniela Corina Oprea (Bîrlă) & Raluca Simina Bilți & Vanina Adoriana Trifan, 2023. "From corporate social responsability to environmental, social, governance investing: non-financial reporting - benefits and legislative implications," Journal of Financial Studies, Institute of Financial Studies, vol. 14(8), pages 117-128, June.
    9. Qin Lingda Tan & Sharizal Hashim & Zhangwei Zheng, 2025. "Environmental Social Governance (ESG) in Digitalization research: A bibliometric analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(1), pages 21582440241, January.
    10. Lu, Chia-Wu & Wu, Hsueh-Ling & Su, Yu-Hsuan, 2024. "The icing on the cake: ESG effect on the quality factor portfolios," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    11. Francesco Cesarone & Lorenzo Lampariello & Davide Merolla & Jacopo Maria Ricci & Simone Sagratella & Valerio Giuseppe Sasso, 2023. "A bilevel approach to ESG multi-portfolio selection," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-23, December.
    12. Hsiao-Yen Mao & Wen-Min Lu & Hsin-Yen Shieh, 2023. "Exploring the Influence of Environmental Investment on Multinational Enterprises’ Performance from the Sustainability and Marketability Efficiency Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-23, May.
    13. Cong Zhang & Shanyue Jin, 2022. "What Drives Sustainable Development of Enterprises? Focusing on ESG Management and Green Technology Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-20, September.
    14. Kozica, Arjan & Kaiser, Stephan, 2012. "A Sustainability Perspective on Flexible HRM: How to Cope with Paradoxes of Contingent Work," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 23(3), pages 239-261.
    15. Xue, Qinyuan & Jin, Yifei & Zhang, Cheng, 2024. "ESG rating results and corporate total factor productivity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    16. Rekha Pillai & Md. Aminul Islam & S. Sreejith & Husam Aldin Al-Malkawi, 2025. "Comparative analysis of environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings: do sectors and regions differ?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 29(1), pages 69-109, March.
    17. Eunjoung Lee & Gunwoo Kim, 2022. "Analysis of Domestic and International Green Infrastructure Research Trends from the ESG Perspective in South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-18, June.
    18. Magdalena Kowalska & Ewa Chomać-Pierzecka, 2025. "Sustainable Development Through the Lens of Climate Change: A Diagnosis of Attitudes in Southeastern Rural Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-21, June.
    19. Jong Gyu Park & Kijung Park & Heena Noh & Yong Geun Kim, 2023. "Characterization of CSR, ESG, and Corporate Citizenship through a Text Mining-Based Review of Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-12, February.
    20. Többen, Dorothea & Rößle, Kathrin, 2024. "Eine Analyse der Entwicklung von Nachhaltigkeitskennzahlen von DAX-Konzernen," Rosenheim Papers in Applied Economics and Business Sciences 11/2024, Rosenheim Technical University of Applied Sciences.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pdn:dispap:168. 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: WP-WiWi-Info (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fwpadde.html .

    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.