IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/ar28u.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Signaling the Adoption of the Benefit Corporation Model: A Step towards Transparency

Author

Listed:
  • Galli, Davide
  • Torelli, Riccardo
  • Tibiletti, Veronica

Abstract

Using the signaling theory as a reference, this research conducts an in-depth analysis of the adoption of the benefit corporation model, a legal and governance framework introduced into Italian regulations in 2016 following legislation introduced by many US states between 2010 and 2013. Focusing on the experience of Italian benefit corporations, we explore how these businesses manage their signaling environment (signaler, signal, receiver, and feedback) to obtain greater transparency. The analysis focuses on companies’ bylaws, websites, and non-financial reports and suggests that the adoption of this new hybrid business model will only translate into an opportunity for greater transparency for one in four benefit corporations. The ability to strengthen the effects of adopting this model, adequate resources, and a long-term approach are required. The model, therefore, appears to present an opportunity for larger companies that have already invested adequately in the development of communication (web) and reporting (report) tools. The results seem to suggest that, on the contrary, for small companies with less experience, transformation into a benefit corporation may generate a risk of ambiguity.

Suggested Citation

  • Galli, Davide & Torelli, Riccardo & Tibiletti, Veronica, 2021. "Signaling the Adoption of the Benefit Corporation Model: A Step towards Transparency," OSF Preprints ar28u, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:ar28u
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/ar28u
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/60d9a109ef8b3f00b6bddfae/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/ar28u?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pascual Berrone & Andrea Fosfuri & Liliana Gelabert, 2017. "Does Greenwashing Pay Off? Understanding the Relationship Between Environmental Actions and Environmental Legitimacy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 363-379, August.
    2. José V. Frias‐Aceituno & Lázaro Rodríguez‐Ariza & Isabel M. Garcia‐Sánchez, 2014. "Explanatory Factors of Integrated Sustainability and Financial Reporting," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 56-72, January.
    3. Srivastava, Joydeep, 2001. "The Role of Inferences in Sequential Bargaining with One-Sided Incomplete Information: Some Experimental Evidence," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 166-187, May.
    4. Janine Hiller, 2013. "The Benefit Corporation and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 287-301, December.
    5. Mahoney, Lois S. & Thorne, Linda & Cecil, Lianna & LaGore, William, 2013. "A research note on standalone corporate social responsibility reports: Signaling or greenwashing?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 350-359.
    6. Suzanne M. Carter, 2006. "The Interaction of Top Management Group, Stakeholder, and Situational Factors on Certain Corporate Reputation Management Activities," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 1145-1176, July.
    7. Dirk Sliwka, 2007. "Trust as a Signal of a Social Norm and the Hidden Costs of Incentive Schemes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 999-1012, June.
    8. Anil K. Gupta & Vijay Govindarajan & Ayesha Malhotra, 1999. "Feedback‐seeking behavior within multinational corporations," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 205-222, March.
    9. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2002. "Information and the Change in the Paradigm in Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 460-501, June.
    10. Michelle J. Stecker, 2016. "Awash in a Sea of Confusion: Benefit Corporations, Social Enterprise, and the Fear of “Greenwashing”," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 373-381, April.
    11. Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2000. "The Contributions of the Economics of Information to Twentieth Century Economics," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1441-1478.
    12. Higgins, Colin & Tang, Samuel & Stubbs, Wendy, 2020. "On managing hypocrisy: The transparency of sustainability reports," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 395-407.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Rosaria Ferlito & Rosario Faraci, 2022. "Sustainable Hybrid Business Model of Benefit Corporation: The Case of an Italian Film Production Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-17, May.

    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. Davide Galli & Riccardo Torelli & Veronica Tibiletti, 2021. "Signaling the Adoption of the Benefit Corporation Model: A Step towards Transparency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-16, June.
    2. Bruno S. Frey & Jana Gallus, 2014. "Awards are a Special Kind of Signal," CREMA Working Paper Series 2014-04, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    3. Taj, Saud A., 2016. "Application of signaling theory in management research: Addressing major gaps in theory," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 338-348.
    4. Giorgio Mion, 2020. "Organizations with Impact? A Study on Italian Benefit Corporations Reporting Practices and Reporting Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-21, October.
    5. Contreras-Pacheco, Orlando E. & Claasen, Cyrlene, 2017. "Fuzzy reporting as a way for a company to greenwash: perspectives from the Colombian reality," MPRA Paper 85472, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Francesca Bernini & Fabio La Rosa, 2024. "Research in the greenwashing field: concepts, theories, and potential impacts on economic and social value," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(2), pages 405-444, June.
    7. Calixto Salomão Filho, 2015. "Monopolies and Underdevelopment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16587.
    8. Giorgio Mion & Cristian R. Loza Adaui, 2020. "Understanding the purpose of benefit corporations: an empirical study on the Italian case," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Eugene Kang & Nguyen Bao Lam, 2023. "The impact of environmental disclosure on initial public offering underpricing: Sustainable development in Singapore," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 119-133, January.
    10. Giorgia Nigri & Laura Michelini & Cecilia Grieco, 2017. "Social Impact And Online Communication In B-Corps," Global Journal of Business Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 11(3), pages 87-104.
    11. Jörn Block & Lars Hornuf & Alexandra Moritz, 2018. "Which updates during an equity crowdfunding campaign increase crowd participation?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 3-27, January.
    12. Silvia Blasi & Silvia Rita Sedita, 2022. "Mapping the emergence of a new organisational form: An exploration of the intellectual structure of the B Corp research," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 107-123, January.
    13. Annebeth Roor & Karen Maas, 2024. "Do impact investors live up to their promise? A systematic literature review on (im)proving investments' impacts," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3707-3732, May.
    14. Torelli, Riccardo, 2020. "Sustainability, Responsibility and Ethics: Different Concepts for a Single Path," OSF Preprints hb92c, Center for Open Science.
    15. Silvia Ruiz-Blanco & Silvia Romero & Belen Fernandez-Feijoo, 2022. "Green, blue or black, but washing–What company characteristics determine greenwashing?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 4024-4045, March.
    16. Emmanuel Laffort & Nicolas Dufour, 2021. "Prise en compte de la fraude dans les organisations : comment libérer la parole ?," Post-Print hal-03336041, HAL.
    17. Torelli, Riccardo & Balluchi, Federica & Lazzini, Arianna, 2019. "Greenwashing and Environmental Communication: Effects on Stakeholders’ Perceptions," OSF Preprints 97vxn, Center for Open Science.
    18. Alessandro Lai & Gaia Melloni & Riccardo Stacchezzini, 2016. "Corporate Sustainable Development: is ‘Integrated Reporting’ a Legitimation Strategy?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 165-177, March.
    19. Armando Calabrese & Roberta Costa & Nathan Levialdi & Tamara Menichini & Roberth Andres Villazon Montalvan, 2020. "Does More Mean Better? Exploring the Relationship between Report Completeness and Environmental Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    20. Xue Yang & Yuandi Wang & Die Hu & Yongqiang Gao, 2018. "How industry peers improve your sustainable development? The role of listed firms in environmental strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1313-1333, December.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:osf:osfxxx:ar28u. 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    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.