B Corporations and Corporate Social Entrepreneurship

What is in it for me? B Corporations as Pioneers of Corporate Social Entrepreneurship

“B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.” (B Corporation, 2019).

“B Corp is to business what Fair Trade is to coffee… They are businesses that give as much consideration to their social and environmental impact as they do to their financial returns.” (PWC UK, 2019).

B Corporations are a relatively new movement launched in the UK in 2015. Certified B Corporations strike a fine balance between profit and purpose, giving as much consideration to their social and environmental impact as they do to their financial returns. They meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.

Research Aims

This project aims to explore the following questions:

  • To what extent does B Corporation certification fundamental transform businesses to balance profit and purpose?
  • To what extent does B Corporation certification deliver economic, social and environmental value at the firm level?
  • To what extent does B Corporation certification help build public trust in corporations?

The project findings have the potential to make a significant impact on identifying transformational mechanisms for businesses to contribute to an inclusive and sustainable economy.

B Corporations appear to offer a positive solution to today’s social, economic and environmental problems, and to (re-)build public trust in the corporations, which has been in a significant decline in recent years. 

The project will help B Corporations in understanding the transformation mechanisms of corporate social entrepreneurship and building public trust as well as further strengthen the B Corporation movement's role in building an inclusive and sustainable economy and society.

Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Professor Catherine Wang
Professor Catherine Wang - I am a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy and Research Excellence Framework Lead at Brunel Business School. I founded the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Entrepreneurship and Sustainability and was the Centre Director for seven years at Brunel University of London. Previously, I held academic posts at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Oxford Brookes University. In the academic community, I am an elected Fellow of the British Academy of Management, and also hold other roles: a British Academy of Management Peer Review College Fellow (Inaugural Cohort), an ESRC Peer Review College Member, and a journal editorial board member for British Journal of Management, International Journal of Management reviews, and International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research. I have served as a Scientific Evaluator on a number of international grant panels in the UK, the US, Finland, Portugal, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan. I have also served as a judge of the European Business Awards and Sage Group Innovation Awards.  My research interests are at the intersection of entrepreneurship, strategy and innovation, in particular, how firms can turn strategic and entrepreneurial resources and capabilities into successful innovation and create economic and social value in commercial and social enterprises, based on interdisciplinary theory, methods and practice. Currently, I am particularly interested in digital, social and sustainable entrepreneurship. My research has received awards from prestigious research councils, such as the Economic and Social Research Council and its Digital Good Network, British Academy, Leverhulme, and Arts and Humanities Research Council.  I have published in leading international journals, including FT50, CABS 4* and CABS 4 journals, such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, British Journal of Management, Journal of Business Research, International Small Business Journal, Journal of Small Business Management, Small Business Economics, International Journal of Management Reviews, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior and Research, European Journal of Information Systems, R&D Management, and Technovation. My Google Scholar profile shows over 15338 citations, an h-index of 33 and an i10-index of 48 in 2025, and I am honoured to be among the top 2% of business and management researchers worldwide according to Stanford University’s citation analysis published by Elsevier.  Prior to joining academia, I worked on small business support and international trade at Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce in the UK, and international business in China. Enterprise development and business engagement is an integral part of my research and teaching activities. Having led several funded industry engagement projects, I have worked with stakeholders in private and public sectors to transfer and co-create knowledge, through engaged research (for example, Digital Technology Adoption in UK Charities, Stronger Together: Collaborative Innovation between Small Firms and Large Corporations, and Social Enterprises: Ten Years On) and practice-led teaching. 

Related Research Group(s)

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Strategy Entrepreneurship and International Business - Our themes of research range from entrepreneurial and internationalisation strategies of small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to inward and outward investment by large enterprises and supra-national governance.

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Entrepreneurship and Sustainability - Our focus is on how individuals, businesses and societies can tap into creative and entrepreneurial flair to develop innovative solutions, in order to not only create economic value, but also solve social and environmental problems.

Partnering with confidence

Organisations interested in our research can partner with us with confidence backed by an external and independent benchmark: The Knowledge Exchange Framework. Read more.

Project last modified 09/01/2024