IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbvent/v33y2018i2p117-129.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Imprinting with purpose: Prosocial opportunities and B Corp certification

Author

Listed:
  • Moroz, Peter W.
  • Branzei, Oana
  • Parker, Simon C.
  • Gamble, Edward N.

Abstract

Certified B Corporations are ventures that have chosen to embrace third party voluntary social and environmental audits conducted by an entrepreneurial non-profit enterprise called B Lab. In this special issue, we focus on the lifecycle of Certified B Corporations and its relation to the entrepreneurial journey. We highlight research at the intersection of opportunities and prosocial certification to identify patterns and processes which add significant value to ongoing conversations in the field of entrepreneurship while charting new research pathways. We develop a framework of prosocial venturing and certification that pinpoints several elements of likely consequence and curiosity. This offers new insights about the entrepreneurial process that hint at the importance of opportunity, identity metamorphosis and sedimentation/superseding work. We thereby interpret how the exploration of prosociality may add to conversations on how and why ventures resist or embrace change over time, to what effect and ultimately, how opportunities may be reBorn.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:33:y:2018:i:2:p:117-129
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2018.01.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S088390261731011X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2018.01.003?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. Bertrand Moingeon & Muhammad Yunus & Laurence Lehmann-Ortega, 2010. "Building Social Business Models: Lessons from the Grameen Experience," Post-Print hal-00528385, HAL.
    2. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    3. 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.
    4. Webb, Justin W. & Bruton, Garry D. & Tihanyi, Laszlo & Ireland, R. Duane, 2013. "Research on entrepreneurship in the informal economy: Framing a research agenda," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 598-614.
    5. 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.
    6. Parker,Simon C., 2018. "The Economics of Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781316621714.
    7. 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.
    8. Kurland, Nancy B., 2017. "Accountability and the public benefit corporation," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 519-528.
    9. Grimes, Matthew G. & Gehman, Joel & Cao, Ke, 2018. "Positively deviant: Identity work through B Corporation certification," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 130-148.
    10. Gail Whiteman & Brian Walker & Paolo Perego, 2013. "Planetary Boundaries: Ecological Foundations for Corporate Sustainability," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 307-336, March.
    11. Sarason, Yolanda & Hanley, Grace, 2013. "Embedded Corporate Social Responsibility: Can't We Do Better Than GE, Intel, and IBM? How About a Benefit Corporation?," Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 354-358, December.
    12. Magali A. Delmas & Michael W. Toffel, 2008. "Organizational responses to environmental demands: opening the black box," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(10), pages 1027-1055, October.
    13. Peter W. Moroz & Kevin Hindle, 2012. "Entrepreneurship as a Process: Toward Harmonizing Multiple Perspectives," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(4), pages 781-818, July.
    14. Ming D. Leung & Amanda J. Sharkey, 2014. "Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Evidence of Perceptual Factors in the Multiple-Category Discount," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 171-184, February.
    15. Mathias, Blake D. & Williams, David W. & Smith, Adam R., 2015. "Entrepreneurial inception: The role of imprinting in entrepreneurial action," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 11-28.
    16. Sharma, Garima & Beveridge, 'Alim J. & Haigh, Nardia, 2018. "A configural framework of practice change for B corporations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 207-224.
    17. Conger, Michael & McMullen, Jeffery S. & Bergman, Brian J. & York, Jeffrey G., 2018. "Category membership, identity control, and the reevaluation of prosocial opportunities," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 179-206.
    18. Muñoz, Pablo & Cacciotti, Gabriella & Cohen, Boyd, 2018. "The double-edged sword of purpose-driven behavior in sustainable venturing," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 149-178.
    19. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    20. Maksimov, Vladislav & Wang, Stephanie Lu & Luo, Yadong, 2017. "Institutional imprinting, entrepreneurial agency, and private firm innovation in transition economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 854-865.
    21. Siqueira, Ana Cristina O. & Guenster, Nadja & Vanacker, Tom & Crucke, Saskia, 2018. "A longitudinal comparison of capital structure between young for-profit social and commercial enterprises," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 225-240.
    22. Moss, Todd W. & Renko, Maija & Block, Emily & Meyskens, Moriah, 2018. "Funding the story of hybrid ventures: Crowdfunder lending preferences and linguistic hybridity," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 643-659.
    23. Evelyn Micelotta & Marvin Washington & Iva Docekalova, 2018. "Industry Gender Imprinting and New Venture Creation: The Liabilities of Women’s Leagues in the Sports Industry," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(1), pages 94-128, January.
    24. Lowell W. Busenitz & Mark P. Sharfman & David M. Townsend & Jason A. Harkins, 2016. "The Emergence of Dual-Identity Social Entrepreneurship: Its Boundaries and Limitations," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 25-48, March.
    25. Janine Hiller, 2013. "The Benefit Corporation and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 287-301, December.
    26. Peter T. Bryant, 2014. "Imprinting by Design: The Microfoundations of Entrepreneurial Adaptation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(5), pages 1081-1102, September.
    27. Davidsson, Per, 2017. "Entrepreneurial opportunities as propensities: Do Ramoglou & Tsang move the field forward?," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 7(C), pages 82-85.
    28. Fiona Wilson & James Post, 2013. "Business models for people, planet (& profits): exploring the phenomena of social business, a market-based approach to social value creation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 715-737, April.
    29. Giacomo Negro & Ming D. Leung, 2013. "“Actual” and Perceptual Effects of Category Spanning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 684-696, June.
    30. Lowell W. Busenitz & Chung-Ming Lau, 1996. "A Cross-Cultural Cognitive Model of New Venture Creation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 20(4), pages 25-40, July.
    31. Jeffery S. McMullen & Dimo Dimov, 2013. "Time and the Entrepreneurial Journey: The Problems and Promise of Studying Entrepreneurship as a Process," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(8), pages 1481-1512, December.
    32. Milanov, Hana & Fernhaber, Stephanie A., 2009. "The impact of early imprinting on the evolution of new venture networks," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 46-61, January.
    33. Bamford, Charles E. & Dean, Thomas J. & McDougall, Patricia P., 2000. "An examination of the impact of initial founding conditions and decisions upon the performance of new bank start-ups," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 253-277, May.
    34. Suddaby, Roy & Bruton, Garry D. & Si, Steven X., 2015. "Entrepreneurship through a qualitative lens: Insights on the construction and/or discovery of entrepreneurial opportunity," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-10.
    35. Christopher Wickert & Antonino Vaccaro & Joep Cornelissen, 2017. "“Buying” Corporate Social Responsibility: Organisational Identity Orientation as a Determinant of Practice Adoption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 497-514, May.
    36. Cooper, Arnold C. & Gimeno-Gascon, F. Javier & Woo, Carolyn Y., 1994. "Initial human and financial capital as predictors of new venture performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 371-395, September.
    37. Dean A. Shepherd & Holger Patzelt, 2017. "Trailblazing in Entrepreneurship," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-48701-4, December.
    38. Davidsson, Per, 2015. "Entrepreneurial opportunities and the entrepreneurship nexus: A re-conceptualization," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 674-695.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Moroz, Peter W. & Gamble, Edward N., 2021. "Business model innovation as a window into adaptive tensions: Five paths on the B Corp journey," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 672-683.
    4. Wry, Tyler & Haugh, Helen, 2018. "Brace for impact: Uniting our diverse voices through a social impact frame," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 566-574.
    5. Branzei, Oana & Parker, Simon C. & Moroz, Peter W. & Gamble, Edward, 2018. "Going pro-social: Extending the individual-venture nexus to the collective level," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 551-565.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Lien De Cuyper & Bart Clarysse & Nelson Phillips, 2020. "Imprinting Beyond the Founding Phase: How Sedimented Imprints Develop over Time," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(6), pages 1579-1600, November.
    9. 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".
    10. Gras, David & Conger, Michael & Jenkins, Anna & Gras, Michael, 2020. "Wicked problems, reductive tendency, and the formation of (non-)opportunity beliefs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(3).
    11. Erik Lundmark & Anna Krzeminska & Dean A. Shepherd, 2019. "Images of Entrepreneurship: Exploring Root Metaphors and Expanding Upon Them," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 138-170, January.
    12. 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.
    13. Per Davidsson & Jan Henrik Gruenhagen, 2021. "Fulfilling the Process Promise: A Review and Agenda for New Venture Creation Process Research," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(5), pages 1083-1118, September.
    14. Mai Thi Thanh Thai & Amon Simba & Marina Dabić, 2024. "Host versus home country influence on the immigrant entrepreneurial process: an imprinting perspective," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(12), pages 3597-3638, December.
    15. Edward N. Gamble & Simon C. Parker & Peter W. Moroz, 2020. "Measuring the Integration of Social and Environmental Missions in Hybrid Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 271-284, November.
    16. Gupta, Parul & Chauhan, Sumedha & Paul, Justin & Jaiswal, M.P., 2020. "Social entrepreneurship research: A review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 209-229.
    17. Muñoz, Pablo & Cacciotti, Gabriella & Cohen, Boyd, 2018. "The double-edged sword of purpose-driven behavior in sustainable venturing," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 149-178.
    18. Valerie Paelman & Philippe Van Cauwenberge & Heidi Vander Bauwhede, 2021. "The Impact of B Corp Certification on Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-16, June.
    19. Ine Paeleman & Nadja Guenster & Tom Vanacker & Ana Cristina O. Siqueira, 2024. "The Consequences of Financial Leverage: Certified B Corporations’ Advantages Compared to Common Commercial Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(3), pages 507-523, January.
    20. Mathias, Blake D. & Williams, David W. & Smith, Adam R., 2015. "Entrepreneurial inception: The role of imprinting in entrepreneurial action," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 11-28.

    More about this item

    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:eee:jbvent:v:33:y:2018:i:2:p:117-129. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusvent .

    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.