Patterns of B Corps Certification: The Role of Institutional, Economic, and Political Resources

Caddie Putnam Rankin and Todd Lee Matthews
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Caddie Putnam Rankin: Department of Business Management, Washington College, Chestertown, MD 21620, USA
Todd Lee Matthews: Department of Business and Change Leadership, Cabrini University, Radnor, PA 19087, USA

Societies, 2020, vol. 10, issue 3, 1-12

Abstract: This paper explores the certification of companies as B Corps from 2007 through 2016, the first 10 years of certification. B Corps are for profit companies that promise to “Be a Force for Good” in our society. Over 2600 companies in over 50 countries are certified as B Corps, responding to demands for higher accountability, ethical behavior, and contributions to their environment and community. We focus here only on B Corps in the United States and analyze a state-level database we have developed of 851 companies that became certified in the first 10 years of certification, between 2007 and 2016. In the paper we ask: What conditions in the macro environment facilitate the spread of B Corps certification? This paper uses the framework of resource dependence theory and institutional theory to explore the diffusion of certification. We hypothesize that institutional, economic, and political resources in the external environment provide conditions that support B Corps certification.

Keywords: B corps certification; corporate social responsibility; quantitative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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