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Research shows that the majority of investors, consumers and even younger consumers who are interested in social responsibility are unaware of B Corps. Companies spend significant time and money to obtain B Corp status that B Lab, the non-profit that certifies companies, wants to use as a force for good. Using signaling theory and corporate communication theory, the study examines whether B Corps market their B Corp status effectively on B Corps' social media sites to determine whether brand equity is being built there for the B Corp label by the B Corp companies themselves.

The authors content analyzed social media activity of 100 randomly selected US B Corps ranging in size and industry type over a two-month period on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. The sample was selected from the listing of the B Corporations on the B Lab website using a skip interval method. The authors searched for preselected keywords within two main categories, one directly mentioning B Corps (such as B Corp logo and B Corp name), and another discussing company social responsibility activities that directly relate to what B Corps do but did not mention the B Corp name.

The study finds that half of the B Corps had no social media presence. Of those who were active on social media, most B Corps did not mention B Corp status while many of the B Corps discussed social responsibility activities that directly talked about workers, environment, community, and governance, the areas that B Corp certification covers.

The study indicates that reverse decoupling might better explain communication of B Corp certification on social media than signaling theory. The finding is consistent with more recent research on certifications that shows that obtaining certifications by companies does not have to be followed by marketing certificates even when that could be beneficial. On the other hand, communication of general pro-social claims is consistent with the assumptions of the signaling theory and often used by B Corps. The study suggests why companies market general claims but not a B Corp label. Findings also suggest that when promoting the B Corp label is not done, a firm's internal values are not being expressed externally but when social responsible activities are promoted, a firm's internal values are being expressed externally. The research points to a missed opportunity for B Corps that spend significant resources to get certified. Future studies should employ larger samples with and international companies and venture into other forms of marketing through which B Corp status may be conveyed.

B Corps can easily connect information on the socially responsible activities of B Corps with B Corp status on social media and reap the benefits of B Corps by creating equity for B Corp label on multiple levels. This would also help B-Lab that strives to develop a stronger brand for the B Corps' certification. When consumers know what B Corp stands for, consumers are willing to pay premium prices. Investors are also increasingly interested in companies that care for stakeholders and the environment and are governed in transparent and socially responsible ways.

B Corps are described by the B-Lab as a “force for good” that benefits communities, environment and society. Understanding how certifications such as B Corps are communicated to the public and improving how they are communicated can help businesses reap more benefits from B Corps' socially responsible activity and help consumers and investors become educated about such companies so that B Corps can support them. This is important as B-Corps certification is still not well known. Marketing B Corp certification more effectively can help develop a wider and stronger network of businesses that want to do good, investors that want to found socially responsible companies and consumers who want to buy from B Corps. To create such a marketplace B Corps need to be better marketed online.

The study shows that the authors cannot assume that the certifications that companies obtain, often using significant resources and potentially offering many benefits for building brand equity, will be communicated to the stakeholders to reap these benefits. The study provides possible reasons for why companies may not market such endeavors. The study questions assumptions implicit in signaling theory and by using reverse decoupling the study explains why companies may pursue certifications but not market that the companies obtain them even when pro-social certifications have a great potential to differentiate a company among stakeholders that look for socially responsible firms. The study questions what this means for creating a change in business to become a “force for good.”

This paper aims to achieve a better understanding about the competitive and institutional pressures that can determine socially responsible corporate behaviours of organisations that operate in an organisational field.

The paper draws on New Institutional Sociology to analyse pressures on Spanish electricity companies to behave in socially responsible ways. Data collection covers the period 1997‐2008 and the data sources were the following: semi‐structured interviews, industrial regulation, documents, websites of organisations and associations, and informal discussions.

Socially responsible corporate behaviours of Spanish electricity companies were due not only to internal decisions based on economic rationality, but also to various institutional (coercive, normative and mimetic) pressures.

The study covers a specific organisational field, the Spanish electricity sector. Further research would be necessary in order to analyse other organisational fields and to compare the results.

Conditions under which organisations behave in socially responsible ways are contrasted in the case of Spanish electricity companies, for instance, the healthy economic environment, the monitoring of their behaviour and their participation in associations that promote Corporate Social Responsibility.

Generally, pressures of the environment on organisations to behave in socially responsible ways have received little attention and the specialised literature has focused on the individual organisation level of analysis. So, a contribution of the paper is to analyse the pressures of the competitive and institutional environment on a specific organisational field so that organisations adopt socially responsible corporate behaviours.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the performance of socially responsible stocks portfolio vis-à-vis portfolios of general companies in the Indian stock market.

The study has used absolute rate of return as well as various risk adjusted measures like Sharpe ratio, Treynor ratio, Jensen’s α, Information ratio, Fama’s decomposition measure and dummy regression model to evaluate the performance of various portfolios.

Socially responsible stocks portfolios are found to have lower relative risk despite having higher systematic risk. Further the authors find that during crisis and post-crisis period, socially responsible stocks portfolio generated significantly higher return as compared to other portfolios in the Indian stock market. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) Index and GREENEX Index provided positive net selectivity returns in all the three sub periods, especially during crisis period. GREENEX and ESG outperformed NIFTY and SENSEX even on net selectivity basis. This indicates that the compromise made with respect to diversification by investing in socially responsible stocks portfolios was well rewarded in terms of higher returns in Indian context.

The findings lend support to the case of socially responsible investing (SRI) in India and are relevant for companies, regulators, policy makers and investors at large. Mutual funds and other investment funds should launch schemes which invest in socially responsible stocks so as to provide the benefits of SRI even to small investors in India.

The study contributes to the related literature by analysing the performance of socially responsible stocks portfolios in Indian stock market which is one of the emerging markets.

This paper aims to propose a taxonomy based on socially responsible practices across supply chains. The authors compare and contrast different socially responsible initiatives in manufacturing supply chains and their effect on economic performance, socially responsible outcomes and manufacturing costs.

This study is based on survey data collected in 262 manufacturing plants located in 15 countries. Cluster analysis is conducted to develop the research taxonomy. Moreover, socially responsible initiatives were compared on a country level. Finally, multiple regressions were performed to identify associations between performance, manufacturing and socially responsible variables.

The taxonomy was constructed based on four socially responsible corporate dimensions (legal, ethical, discretionary and economic). The results identified three clusters of manufacturing organizations that adopt different approaches to socially responsible initiatives across supply chains and their performance.

Previous studies explored the elements and the impacts of the go-no-go decisions in the intersection between CSR and the supply chain. The present study brings new insights by analyzing how socially responsible initiatives in supply chains and their performance are different. Moreover, the sample encompasses 15 countries, and it proposes a taxonomy and directions to support the managers’ decision-making process.

The chapter explores factors that help define ‘socially responsible value chains’, in which firms create and deliver goods and services that provide social and economic value, but minimize negative externalities, operate in environmentally and socially sustainable ways, and address the concerns of all stakeholders. We use the case method to capture nuances of complex value-chain relationships extending into the unfamiliar territory of emerging markets. We chose three cases, involving Apple, Nike and Nestle, which have become landmarks in corporate responsibility policy and practice. We identify fundamental questions pertaining to social responsibility that arise when firms’ value chains extend across countries and deep into the bottom of the pyramid, and discuss how information gaps, institutional environment and socio-political actors affect outcomes. The chapter provides value by defining the role of governments, inter-governmental organizations, NGOs and managers in creating socially responsible value chains, and laying out specific recommendations.

The present work aimed to present the perception of Tunisian professionals towards companies engaged in social responsibility practices and describe the tax evasion strategies of socially responsible Tunisian companies following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (COVID-19) shock.

A survey was sent to 119 Tunisian tax administration auditors. Data analysis methods principal component analysis (PCA) and regression analysis were used. The data were collected through a questionnaire after the general containment of Tunisia from September 2020 to February 2021. These quantitative data were analysed using processing software (STATA).

Professionals of the tax authorities, particularly those in charge of the audit mission, aim for corporate profitability from the perspective of stakeholders that seek to integrate ethics and social responsibility into companies and consider employee morale a top priority. The results show that highly ethical and socially responsible professionals are far from practising aggressive strategies. Thus, an auditor from the tax administration is far from engaging in social responsibility to justify fraudulent acts. During the COVID-19 period, the role of these professionals was to prevent and detect fraud in the tax sector to fight corruption and investigate taxes based on sound regulations.

The results are consistent with optimal taxation theory, which postulates that a tax system should be chosen to maximise a social welfare function subject to a set of constraints. Professionals seek to make taxation much simpler for taxpayers by providing advice and consultation to manage tax obligations. The minimisation of tax or the play of tax values requires expertise in the field to respect legal constraints. Therefore, these professionals play a crucial role in tax collection, as the professionals' advice and suggestions can influence taxpayers' decision-making.

In recent years, academic researchers, policy makers and the public have become increasingly interested in corporate tax evasion behaviour. At the same time, companies are under increasing pressure to integrate CSR into the companies' decision-making processes, which has led to increased academic interest in CSR. Opportunistic tax minimisation reduces state resources and funds needed for government programmes to improve the social welfare of the entire community. This study represents an overriding concern not only for legal and tax authorities and companies, but also for shareholders and stakeholders.

The authors' study contributes to the existing literature by determining the state of play on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices amongst Tunisian tax authorities' professionals. In Tunisia, an executive of the tax authorities in charge of the verification mission is required to verify the proper application of the accounting and tax legislation in force, follow up on tax control operations on declared taxes and validate the sincerity of the accounts. This study focussed on the tax evasion of companies engaged in social responsibility practices according to the judgements of Tunisian tax authorities' auditors during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this study is to analyze how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects a company's value. It does this specifically by analyzing the effect of socially responsible behaviors on shared value (SV) creation, in order to foster higher performance (PRF) and greater competitive advantages, considering the moderator role of the supply chain leadership dependency (SCLD). It provides new insights into CSR management to ensure business sustainability for supply chain management.

This study uses a structured questionnaire to gather data from a cross-sectional sample of 425 supply chain partners for Portugal's biggest energy supplier. Structural equation modeling is used to test the proposed hypotheses, and a multigroup analysis is conducted to find how a supplier's dependency can impact the suggested relationships.

The findings suggest that CSR positively impacts CA, SV and PRF. Additionally, this study reveals that SV has a positive impact on PRF. Additionally, the SCLD appears to moderate some of the proposed relationships.

This paper provides some empirical evidence of the influence of CSR on organizational value creation, contributing toward a better understanding of the impacts of socially responsible behaviors on business sustainability. The overall results may support the importance of CSR, identifying how a socially responsible company may create value for itself and share it with partners, thereby improving performance and competitiveness, while considering the role of dependency in moderating these relationships. Yet, the research considers only one company supplier. The relationships between variables need to be explored in other practical case studies and longitudinal investigations to improve upon the potential for making generalizations.

Results show that being cooperative might make a company more competitive, which might be one of the foundations of CSR and sustainability.

This study claims that profit alone is no longer sufficient for the legitimization of business. As an alternative, SV creation has become the new goal for businesses seeking to regain and improve societal trust.

The overall results may support the importance of CSR, identifying how a socially responsible company may create value for itself and share it with partners, thereby improving performance and competitiveness, while considering the role of dependency in moderating these relationships.

Board diversity positively impacts corporate social responsibility (CSR); however, there is limited evidence on how board diversity affects the reputation of organizations that are involved in CSR. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect board diversity has on socially responsible firms’ corporate social responsibility reputation (CSRR). The authors specifically examine this relationship because an organization’s corporate reputation may be very different to its CSRR gained through engagement in socially responsible activities.

The authors use the CSR reputation scores for the top 100 most socially responsible global companies provided by the RepTrak Database as a measure of CSRR. Board diversity measures are calculated for gender, ethnicity and education to measure their impact on social reputation. The sample for this study consists of 146 observations for the period 2013–2017.

The authors find a significant and positive relation between having a combination of women and ethnically diverse members on the board and firms’ CSRR. The authors also find a significant positive effect on CSRR when the board is composed of women and educationally diverse members.

Board diversity characteristics continue to impact organizations’ decision-making processes and their involvement in CSR activities as public stakeholders demand greater representation of females and minorities on the board. Because research on board diversity is in its infancy, the authors urge scholars to continue to investigate the impact board diversity has on an organization’s motivation to be socially responsible as well as how it affects their CSRR.

The findings of this study highlight the importance stakeholders place on an organization’s social responsibility reputation and the positive effects of board diversity in managing their CSRR.

The findings provide evidence that the composition of the board can influence a company’s engagement in CSR activities and their CSRR as perceived by its stakeholders.

This study contributes to the CSR literature by introducing the concept of CSRR. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study also extends research in the diversity literature by examining the relationship between board diversity variables and an organization’s CSRR. The findings highlight the importance of having a diverse board composed of ethnically and educationally varied individuals and provide evidence of a link between organizations’ involvement in socially responsible activities and their CSRR.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between social and environmental responsibility knowledge, attitudes, and purchasing behavior.

An online questionnaire was developed to assess knowledge of, and attitudes towards, issues of social responsibility, including social and environmental aspects related to the production and distribution of apparel and textile goods. Information regarding engagement in socially and environmentally responsible apparel‐purchasing behavior was also collected. Participants included students enrolled at a four‐year institution located in the Midwestern USA.

Participants indicated being more knowledgeable about apparel environmental issues as compared to apparel social issues. Overall, participants exhibited low involvement in socially and environmentally responsible apparel‐purchasing behavior. However, both knowledge and attitudes of social and environmental issues were significant predictors of socially and environmentally responsible purchasing behavior.

Given the competition among apparel companies operating in the marketplace, this study lends valuable insight for firms in implementing strategic social and environmental practices and policies. The implications of this study also suggest that firms within the industry may need to respond to the barriers perceived by consumers in engaging in sustainable apparel‐purchasing behavior.

The findings of this study are useful in understanding the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. Previous research on this topic has been inconclusive. A thorough examination of this topic is important, as noted by previous scholars, consumers have the ability to effect change in the marketplace through their purchasing behavior.