Characterizing the mission statements of benefit corporations: Empirical evidence from Italy

Abstract

In 2015, Italy introduced a new legal form-"benefit corporation" (società benefit)that provides legal status to companies that have one or more common benefit objectives in addition to the profit-seeking goal. Italian benefit corporations are obligated by law to operate in a responsible, sustainable, and transparent way and to include the interests of different stakeholders in their corporate strategy. This study examines the Italian case by applying textual statistical analysis on benefit corporations' public mission statements using the IRaMuTeQ software. Performing hierarchical cluster analysis and correspondence factor analysis identifies the "benefit" concept emerging from the mission statements in terms of promotion of individual skills, development of a new business model, and service to society. This study contributes to the debate on the content of mission statements by giving empirical evidence about this new form of business, and it provides some practical implications for managers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers.

Pursuing a strategy of ‘common benefit’ in business: The adoption of the benefit corporation model in Italy

“…Lastly, the common traits of firms that are recognized as BCs. A previous analysis conducted in Italy (Mion et al, 2021) has focused its attention on the information that could be found on the website of a sample of BCs, while we conducted our analysis directly inside the AoA, where the specific common benefit pursued by companies could be detected.…”

Business research for sustainable development: How does sustainable business model research reflect doughnut economics?

“…SBM research might examine how such distributive design traits function (Dekhili & Achabou, 2013; Mjahed Hammami et al, 2018; Norris et al, 2021). The literature on social businesses (Gold et al, 2020; Schrader et al, 2012), social entrepreneurship (Enthoven & Thelken, 2022) and benefit corporations (Liute & De Giacomo, 2022; Mion et al, 2021; Stubbs, 2017) could provide valuable insights for this avenue of research.…”

A theory of credible cross‐temporal corporate commitments as goal‐based private sustainability governance

“…For instance, signing a legally binding contract with a third‐party stakeholder that entitles them to sue the company for damages if the commitment is broken could be a powerful way to “tie one's hands” in the future period. Other ways to disable discretion could be to change the legal form of the company to one that is mandated to be concerned about its social and environmental impacts, for instance, via converting to a benefit corporation or implementing other forms of stakeholder governance, as Patagonia has done alongside over 4900 other companies around the world (B Lab, 2022; Mion et al, 2021; Rawhouser et al, 2015). Alternatively, companies could lobby for government regulation that ties their hands for them, for example, via due diligence legislation (Bager et al, 2021) or import bans on unsustainable or illegal products such as the Lacey Act Amendment (Eberhardt, 2013).…”