Suchergebnisse

State responsibility — Kinds of — For taking of, or interference with, property — Mortgagee's interest — Nationalization of debtor corporation — Seizure of mortgaged property — Whether ground for an international claim — Whether loss to mortgagee too remote — The rule of proximate cause — Burden of proof on mortgagee claimant — Relevance of absence of "due process" in nationalization programme — Relevance of nature of interest created by mortgage on land according to local law.

Purpose
This study identifies the factors that influence companies to obtain the B corporation certification. Drawing from institutional isomorphism, gender socialization theory, the ethics of care and social identity theory, the authors examine the impact of geographic locality, product market competitions and owners' demographic characteristics on a firm's decision to be a certified B Corporation.


Design/methodology/approach
Using two sets of data, a hand-collected sample of 743 small businesses receiving a B Corporation certification between 2007 and 2014 and a sample of 902 firms participating in a B Lab survey from 2011 to 2013, the authors examine factors that influence firms' decision to obtain the B Corporation and their environment, social and governance (ESG) performance.


Findings
Firms in states that are democratic-leaning, have a lower hourly wage rate or have a greater religious population are more likely to be early adopters and leaders of the B Corporation movement than those in other states. On average, states with a higher unemployment rate and more democratic-leaning voters have more B Corporation certified firms in each year and over the years. Additionally, product market competition is positively associated with firms' likelihood of obtaining B Corporation certification and their ESG scores.


Practical implications
This study brings new insights to the understanding of purpose-driven enterprises and factors that influence firms' decision to go through the B Corporation verification and certification process.


Originality/value
This study establishes a theoretical foundation that becoming a B Corporation is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) action and shows that existing theories explaining the factors motivating companies to engage in CSR can also be applied to explain firms' motivation to become B Corporations.

Myriad cross-sector initiatives seek to remake capitalism into a more just, sustainable, and inclusive system. But how do these distributed efforts—which often vary in strength—interact? We contribute by attending to the interaction between weak and strong governance reforms. Drawing on longstanding research on organizational values and the sociology of law, we theorize how the enactment of weak and broad sustainability legislation is likely to increase pressure on values-driven businesses to pursue both values authentication and material authentication by way of strong third-party certification. We test our conceptual model by examining the effects of the frequently criticized benefit corporation legislation passed in 36 U.S. jurisdictions on the related B Corporation certification. We find that both new certifications and recertifications increase in states with such legislation, and that these effects are amplified or attenuated depending on corporate sustainability norms in the region. Taken together, our findings contribute to the intensifying societal conversation regarding the prospects for remaking capitalism by illustrating how even weak legislation can contribute to systems change not only by encouraging incremental sustainability reforms within a field, but also by triggering an authentication imperative that mobilizes values-driven businesses to pursue rigorous certifications. ; JG acknowledges financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

During his 2007 commencement address at Harvard University, Bill Gates called on the graduates to invent "a more creative capitalism" where "we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the worst inequities." A number of entrepreneurs, including those that started online bookstore Better World Books ("BWB"), are doing their best to create a more creative capitalism. BWB sells approximately 10,000 books a day and brought in $30 million in revenue in 2010. BWB sells its products to return a profit and to improve worldwide literacy directly. It increases literacy by funding book drives and collecting used books and textbooks (through a network of over 1,800 college campuses and partnerships with over 2,000 libraries nationwide) that it distributes to less-developed countries. Since its founding in 2003, the company has converted more than 53 million books into over $9.46 million in funding for literacy and education. In the process, it has diverted more than 26,000 tons of books from landfills. Companies like BWB that measure value creation as a combination of profits and impact on people, the environment, or both are emerging in increasing numbers. These entities, referred to collectively as social enterprises, are taking on roles that have traditionally been played by governmental and nonprofit entities. But, unlike their nonprofit counterparts, social enterprises seek simultaneously to have a positive impact on society and return a profit. Their idealistic pursuit is not without obstacles, however. Many social entrepreneurs (as the founders of social enterprises are called) claim that corporate law is ill-suited and outdated for their entities. Others find it hard to differentiate their socially oriented enterprises from companies that merely claim to benefit society, complicating their efforts to attract capital from socially oriented investors. One of the most creative attempts to help social enterprises ...

A seguito dei mutamenti sociali, economici e politici degli ultimi anni le organizzazioni delle imprese si sono trovate a doversi adattare a situazioni completamente diverse e a sostenere comportamenti innovativi rispetto all'ambiente che le circonda. Anche le finalità imprenditoriali sono dovute mutare per adattarsi alle novità circostanti, passando ad una teoria dell'impresa che è rivolta al servizio della comunità senza trascurare l'esigenza dell'imprenditore finalizzata alla creazione del valore, ma che pretende oggi ancor di più il riferimento a valori etici della conduzione aziendale, con il cambiamento delle scelte aziendali (politiche) e delle strutture che le sostengono ( organizzazione).

The objective of this paper is to break down B Corporations (usually known by the abbreviation B Corps), companies whose bylaws recognize the orientation of its activity towards the pursuit of interests other than the strictly economic one. These companies, which are part of the private "B movement" promoted by the B Lab foundation, have been certified in terms of social and environmental impact with its own measurement system. Once an introduction to this entrepreneurial phenomenon has been given, the origin, evolution, and expansion of the B Corps in different countries around the world will be outlined. It will also be addressed the process of obtaining this private seal in the different areas in which the B Impact Assessment is divided: governance, workers, community, environment, and customers. Furthermore, the different contractual and corporate obligations necessary to achieve B Corp accreditation will be assessed, focusing on the theories that define the corporate purpose of a company and analyzing the possibility of regulating the achievement of purposes other than economic ones on its bylaws. Finally, due to the obligation imposed by B Lab, B Corps which are certified in a country with benefit corporation legislation enacted, will have to adopt this legal status. This will lead us to make a comparative analysis between B Corp and benefit corporations; concluding this section with a comparison of the different legislations that regulate this figure. ; Este estudio tiene por objeto analizar algunos aspectos de las Empresas B (conocidas por la abreviatura B Corps), un tipo de empresas que estatutariamente reconocen la orientación de su actividad hacia la consecución de intereses distintos al estrictamente económico. Estas empresas integran el conocido como "movimiento B", impulsado por la fundación B Lab, la cual certifica con un sistema de medición propio el impacto social y medioambiental de estas entidades. Tras una introducción a este fenómeno empresarial, se expondrá el origen, evolución y expansión ...