How is institutional work used for further establishing the emerging B-Corp category?
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2019-07-02
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en
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Abstract
This study explores how institutional work is applied for further establishing the emerging B-Corp category. Existing studies do focus on how companies that develop CSR standards use institutional work. But how adopters of CSR standards, like B-Corporations (B-Corps), use institutional work and how they can benefit from using this institutional work is largely underexplored in current literature. Therefore this study aims at creating a better understanding of how B-Corporations, as category adopters, use institutional work to promote the category to which they belong from a proto-category towards an established category. To achieve this goal, a qualitative research approach has been taken and ten interviews with Dutch B-Corps were held. To support the interviews, an additional document analysis has been conducted. Findings indicate that B-Corps generally do not have the primary intention of promoting the B-Corp category from a proto-category towards an established category, but first and foremost are doing activities for their own interest with institutional work as byproduct. Results from the cross-case comparison suggest that the size of the organization also has an effect on the extent to which organizations perform institutional work, and findings suggest that larger B-Corps perform more institutional work than smaller B-Corps do.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen