Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v118y2013i2p287-301.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Benefit Corporation and Corporate Social Responsibility

Author

Listed:
  • Janine Hiller
Abstract
In the wake of the most recent financial crisis, corporations have been criticized as being self-interested and unmindful of their relationship to society. Indeed, the blame is sometimes placed on the corporate legal form, which can exacerbate the tension between duties to shareholders and interests of stakeholders. In comparison, the Benefit Corporation (BC) is a new legal business entity that is obligated to pursue public benefit in addition to the responsibility to return profits to shareholders. It is legally a for-profit, socially obligated, corporate form of business, with all the traditional corporate characteristics combined with societal responsibilities. Considering the history and perception of shareholder primacy in United States law, it is argued that this new business structure is an ethical step toward empowering socially committed commercial entities. The contribution of this research is to provide a fundamental base of knowledge about the new legal form of business, the BC, upon which further study may rely. First, the legal history of the corporation is briefly reviewed in order to provide context to the relationship of the corporate form to society, including exploration of the premise that shareholder wealth maximization is its best and only purpose. Second, the BC is described in detail, and state statutes are compared. Third, the BC is placed within the context of corporate social responsibility. Finally, opportunities for future research are discussed. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Janine Hiller, 2013. "The Benefit Corporation and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 287-301, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:118:y:2013:i:2:p:287-301
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-012-1580-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-012-1580-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-012-1580-3?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. L. Metcalf & S. Benn, 2012. "The Corporation is Ailing Social Technology: Creating a ‘Fit for Purpose’ Design for Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(2), pages 195-210, December.
    2. Krista Bondy & Jeremy Moon & Dirk Matten, 2012. "An Institution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Multi-National Corporations (MNCs): Form and Implications," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(2), pages 281-299, December.
    3. Ocde, 2013. "Documents et textes juridiques," Bulletin de droit nucléaire, Éditions OCDE, vol. 2012(2), pages 179-274.
    4. Onyeka Osuji, 2011. "Fluidity of Regulation-CSR Nexus: The Multinational Corporate Corruption Example," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 31-57, September.
    5. Rae André, 2012. "Assessing the Accountability of the Benefit Corporation: Will This New Gray Sector Organization Enhance Corporate Social Responsibility?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(1), pages 133-150, September.
    6. Ocde & Aen, 2012. "Documents et textes juridiques," Bulletin de droit nucléaire, Éditions OCDE, vol. 2012(1), pages 161-251.
    7. Cameron Sabadoz, 2011. "Between Profit-Seeking and Prosociality: Corporate Social Responsibility as Derridean Supplement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(1), pages 77-91, November.
    8. Dorothea Baur & Hans Schmitz, 2012. "Corporations and NGOs: When Accountability Leads to Co-optation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 9-21, March.
    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. Onyeka K. Osuji & Ugochukwu L. Obibuaku, 2016. "Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility: Competing or Complementary Approaches to Poverty Reduction and Socioeconomic Rights?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 329-347, June.
    2. Sara Bice, 2017. "Corporate Social Responsibility as Institution: A Social Mechanisms Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 17-34, June.
    3. Brian Gill & Julie Bruch & Kevin Booker, 2013. "Using Alternative Student Growth Measures for Evaluating Teacher Performance: What the Literature Says," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 85b7a88ce0cf4597a7efd7a21, Mathematica Policy Research.
    4. Danilo Boffa & Antonio Prencipe & Luciano D’Amico & Christian Corsi, 2023. "Gender Inclusiveness and Female Representation on the Board of Directors of the Benefit Company Model: Evidence from Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-20, March.
    5. Irene Chu & Mai Chi Vu, 2022. "The Nature of the Self, Self-regulation and Moral Action: Implications from the Confucian Relational Self and Buddhist Non-self," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 245-262, September.
    6. Zhao-Long Hu & Zhuo-Ming Ren & Guang-Yong Yang & Jian-Guo Liu, 2014. "Effects of multiple spreaders in community networks," International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 25(05), pages 1-8.
    7. Blanche Segrestin & Armand Hatchuel & Kevin Levillain, 2021. "When the Law Distinguishes Between the Enterprise and the Corporation: The Case of the New French Law on Corporate Purpose," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 1-13, June.
    8. Nicos A. Scordis & Yoshihiko Suzawa & Astrid Zwick & Lucia Ruckner, 2014. "Principles for Sustainable Insurance: Risk Management and Value," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 17(2), pages 265-276, September.
    9. Shahid Ali & Junrui Zhang & Muhammad Usman & Muhammad Kaleem Khan & Farman Ullah Khan & Muhammad Abubakkar Siddique, 2020. "Do tournament incentives motivate chief executive officers to be socially responsible?," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(5), pages 597-619, February.
    10. Matthijs Bal & Andy Brookes, 2022. "How Sustainable Is Human Resource Management Really? An Argument for Radical Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-14, April.
    11. David Daniel Peña-Miranda & Jesús Arteaga-Ortiz & José Ramón-Cardona, 2019. "Determinants of CSR Application in the Hotel Industry of the Colombian Caribbean," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-19, September.
    12. NUGRAHANI Tri Siwi & ARTANTO Dwi Ari, 2022. "Sustainability Reporting By Disclosing Economic, Social And Environmental Performance," Studies in Business and Economics, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 17(2), pages 216-226, August.
    13. Shyam Singh & Nathalie Holvoet & Vivek Pandey, 2018. "Bridging Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility: Culture of Monitoring and Evaluation of CSR Initiatives in India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-19, July.
    14. Zohreh Alizadehrad & Ekaterine Maglakelidze, 2020. "Conceptual Model Explaining the Impact of Corporate CSR Awareness (Involvement) on Consumer Behavior," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 10612988, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    15. Timothy Kiessling & Lars Isaksson & Burze Yasar, 2016. "Market Orientation and CSR: Performance Implications," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(2), pages 269-284, August.
    16. Rama Murthy, Sudhir & Roll, Kate & Colin-Jones, Alastair, 2021. "Ending business-non-profit partnerships: The spinout of social enterprises," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(1).
    17. Khan, Majid & Lockhart, James & Bathurst, Ralph, 2021. "The institutional analysis of CSR: Learnings from an emerging country," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    18. Eduardo Duque-Grisales & Javier Aguilera-Caracuel, 2021. "Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Scores and Financial Performance of Multilatinas: Moderating Effects of Geographic International Diversification and Financial Slack," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(2), pages 315-334, January.
    19. Figueira, Sandra & Gauthier, Caroline & Torres de Oliveira, Rui, 2023. "CSR and stakeholder salience in MNE subsidiaries in emerging markets," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(5).
    20. Maliheh Mansouri & Julie Rowney, 2014. "The Dilemma of Accountability for Professionals: A Challenge for Mainstream Management Theories," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 45-56, August.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:118:y:2013:i:2:p:287-301. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.