Certified corporate social responsibility? The current state of certified and decertified B Corps

Yeuseung Kim

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 2021, vol. 28, issue 6, 1760-1768

Abstract: In the age of accountability, companies are asked to communicate the social impact of their operations. Assessed by a nonprofit organization, B Lab, the B Impact Assessment (BIA) score is a rapidly growing third‐party evaluation for for‐profit companies. Using the publicly available 4061 company data provided by B Lab that spans across from 2007 to early 2020, this study provides the current state of the certified and decertified B Corps. The results show that the majority of the companies revisited the BIA every 2 years to recertify. Companies were likely to recertify especially after the third recertification, suggesting that earning the B Corp status can become routinized. The current study shows that the average attrition rate over the entire history of B Corps is 23.7% and the majority of the decertified operate with less than 10 employees. The currently certified companies had a higher overall BIA score than the decertified companies. However, other differences were not apparent.

Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:corsem:v:28:y:2021:i:6:p:1760-1768

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