Abstract
This chapter presents a literature review of an emerging research agenda, the ‘Corporate Purpose’, as a tool to solve today’s corporations and for-profit challenges to define the future of the corporation. The Corporate Purpose of a company is simply its reason for being. It defines why it exists and the impactful contribution it intends to make to society (Mayer, Principles for purposeful business: how to deliver the framework for the future of the corporation: an agenda for business in the 2020s and beyond. British Academy Future of the Corporation Programme, London, 2019a). It is an avenue to assist institutional transformation to transcend the flaws of capitalism and crisis to create more sustainable and regenerative businesses and economies. This review reveals four major antecedents of the Corporate Purpose phenomenon: inequality and distrust, technological challenges, intangible nature of companies and environmental degradation. It also distinguishes three types of drivers behind a corporation’s shift to adopt a Corporate Purpose: regulatory, business and leadership.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bartlett CA, Ghoshal S (1995) Changing the role of top management: beyond strategy to purpose: Harvard business Review72 (6), 79–88 (Nov–Dec 1994). Long Range Plan 28(2):152–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(95)91041-7
Barnett ML (2006) Review of the keystone advantage: what the new dynamics of business ecosystems mean for strategy, innovation, and sustainability by M. Iansiti & R. Levien. Acad Manag Perspect 20(2):88–90. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2006.20591015
Barrick M, Mount M, Li N (2013) The theory of purposeful work behavior: the role of personality, higher-order goals, and job characteristics. Acad Manag Rev 38(1):132–153. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2010.0479
Bell S, Keating M (2019) Low wage growth: why it matters and how to fix it. Australian Economic Review 52(4):377–392
Big Innovation Centre’s The Purposeful Company Taskforce (2016) The purposeful company Interim report. https://www.biginnovationcentre.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/BIC_THE-PURPOSEFUL-COMPANY-INTERIM-REPORT_15.05.2016.pdf
Big Innovation Centre’s The Purposeful Company Taskforce (2017) The purposeful company Interim report. https://thepurposefulcompany.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/feb-24_tpc_policy-report_final_printed-2.pdf
Claremont (2019) Purpose in practice, clarity, authenticity and the spectre of purpose wash. https://claremontcomms.com/research/
Chouinard Y, Ellison J, Ridgeway R (2011) The sustainable economy. Harv Bus Rev 89(10):52–62
Collier P (2018) The future of capitalism: facing the new anxieties. Harper, New York
Donaldson T, Preston LE (1995) The stakeholder theory of the corporation: concepts, evidence, and implications. Acad Manag Rev 20(1):65–91
Eckert G, Silten B (2020) Purpose playbook: putting purpose into practice with shared value. FSG and Share value initiative
Fink L (2019) Larry Fink’s 2019 Letter to CEOS; Profit & Purpose. https://www.blackrock.com/americas-offshore/en/2019-larry-fink-ceo-letter%20priorities,opportunities%20%3B%20and%20human%20capital%20management
Freeman RE, Wicks AC, Parmar B (2004) Stakeholder theory and “the corporate objective revisited”. Organ Sci 15(3):364–369
Freeman RE et al (2010) Stakeholder theory: the state of the art. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Friedman M (1982) Capitalism and freedom. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL
Gartenberg C, Serafeim G (2019) Corporate purpose and firm ownership, vol 1. Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, p 14997
Gartenberg C, Prat A, Serafeim G (2018) Corporate purpose and financial performance. Organ Sci 30(1):1–18
Glauner F (2019) The myth of responsibility: on changing the purpose paradigm. Humanist Manage J 4(1):5–32
Goranova M, Ryan L (2021) The corporate objective revisited: the shareholder perspective. J Manag Stud. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12714
Guiso L, Sapienza P, Zingales L (2015) The value of corporate culture. J Financ Econ 117(1):60–76
Graham K (2014) Your company’s purpose is not its vision, mission, or values. Harvard Business Review, Boston, MA
HBR, EY (2015) The business case for purpose. Harvard Business School Publishing. https://assets.ey.com/content/dam/eysites/ey-com/en_gl/topics/digital/ey-the-business-case-for-purpose.pdf
Henderson R, Van den Steen E (2015) Why do firms have “purpose”? The firm’s role as a carrier of identity and reputation. Am Econ Rev 105(5):326–330
Hollensbe E et al (2014) Organizations with purpose. Acad Manag J 57(5):1227
Hsieh N, Meyer M, Rodin D, Van’t Klooster J (2018) The social purpose of corporations: a literature review and research agenda. J Br Acad 6(s1):49–73
Huang Y, Wilkinson IF (2013) The dynamics and evolution of trust in business relationships. Ind Mark Manag 42(3):455–465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2013.02.016
Hurst A (2019) The purpose economy: how your desire for impact, personal growth and community is changing the world. Independently Published
Hurth V, Ebert C, Prabhu J (2018) Organizational purpose: the construct and its antecedents and consequences. Cambridge Judge Business School, working paper no. 02/2018
Jimenez D, Franco I, Smith T (2021) A review of corporate purpose: an approach to action the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Sustainability 13(7):3899
Jung J, Dobbin F (2012) Finance and institutional investors. In: The Oxford handbook of the sociology of finance. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp 52–74
Mayer C (2018a) The future of the corporation: towards humane business. J Br Acad 16:1–16
Mayer C (2018b) Prosperity: better business makes the greater good. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
Mayer C (2019a) Principles for purposeful business: how to deliver the framework for the future of the corporation: an agenda for business in the 2020s and beyond. British Academy Future of the Corporation Programme, London
Mayer C (2019b) Valuing the invaluable: how much is the planet worth? Oxf Rev Econ Policy 35(1):109–119
Mayer C, Wright M, Phan P (2017) Management research and the future of the corporation: a new agenda. Acad Manag Perspect 31(3):179–182. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2017.0124
Mayer CP (2013) Firm commitment: why the corporation is failing us and how to restore trust in it, 1st edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
Moon HC, Parc J (2019) Shifting corporate social responsibility to corporate social opportunity through creating shared value. Strateg Chang 28(2):115–122
Murray K (2017) People with purpose: how great leaders use purpose to build thriving organizations. Kogan Page Publishers, London
Oxford Economic (2019) How robots change the world, what automation really means for jobs and productivity. Oxford Economics Ltd., Oxford, UK
Porter ME, Heppelmann JE (2015) How smart, connected products are transforming companies. Harv Bus Rev 93(10):96–114
Porter ME, Kramer MR (2011) Creating shared value: how to reinvent capitalism - and unleash a wave of innovation and growth. Harv Bus Rev 89(1/2):62–77
Radley Y (2016) Fit for purpose. https://www.rankingthebrands.com/PDF/Fit%20For%20Purpose%20Index%20Top%20100%202016.pdf
Raworth K (2012) A safe and just space for humanity: can we live within the doughnut. Oxfam Policy Pract Climate Change Resilience 8(1):1–26
Rebecca HM (2018) What would it take to get businesses to focus less on shareholder value? Harvard Business Review, Boston, MA
Robin D (2018) Make purpose operational. Br Acad Rev 34:214–244
Rydqvist K, Spizman J, Strebulaev I (2014) Government policy and ownership of equity securities. J Financ Econ 111:70–85
Spitzeck H, Chapman S (2012) Creating shared value as a differentiation strategy - the example of BASF in Brazil. Corp Gov 12(4):499–513
Steffen W, Smith MS (2013) Planetary boundaries, equity and global sustainability: why wealthy countries could benefit from more equity. Curr Opin Environ Sustain 5(3-4):403–408
Steffen W et al (2015) Sustainability. Planetary boundaries: guiding human development on a changing planet. Science 347(6223):1259855
Stout LA (2012) The shareholder value myth: how putting shareholders first harms investors, corporations, and the public. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Oakland, CA
Stroehle JC, Soonawalla K, Metzner M (2019) How to measure performance in a purposeful company? Analysing the Status Quo. British Academy, Future of the Corporation Working Paper Series
Tomo O (2015) Annual study of intangible asset market value from ocean Tomo, LLC. News release
Wood DJ (1991) Corporate social performance revisited. Academy of Management Review 16:691–718
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Duell, D., Franco, I.B., Jimenez, D., Lamont, S. (2022). Corporate Purpose: An Emerging Approach to Corporate Sustainability. In: Franco, I.B. (eds) Corporate Approaches to Sustainable Development. Science for Sustainable Societies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6421-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6421-2_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-6420-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-6421-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)