台灣B型企業如何吸引、雇用以及留住人才 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學商學院國際經營管理英語碩士學位學程 International MBA Program College of Commerce National Chengchi University. 碩士論文政治. 大. 立Master’s Thesis. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 sit. y. Nat. 台灣 B 型企業如何吸引、雇用以及留住人才 n. al. er. io. How Do B Corps Taiwan Attract, Retain and Engage Talent. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Student: Enora Vasseur Advisor: David Chang. 中華民國 107 年 06 月 June 2018. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(2) 台灣B型企業如何吸引、雇用以及留住人才 How Do B Corps Taiwan Attract, Retain and Engage Talent. 研究生：王諾拉. Student: Enora Vasseur. 指導教授：張大為. Advisor: David Chang. 立. 政治大. 國立政治大學. ‧ 國. 學. 商學院國際經營管理英語碩士學位學程碩士論文. ‧. Nat. sit. y. A Thesis. er. io. Submitted to International MBA Program National Chengchi University a. n. iv l C n in partial fulfilment h e n gofctheh Requirements i U for the degree of Master in Business Administration. 中華民國 107 年 06 月 June 2018. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(3) Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, David Chang, whom has been a great support during this thesis. Always available to help me and of great advice. He provided me with a large number of articles which were indispensable in the writing of this thesis. I also want to thank him for the time he spent meeting with me and conversing. I would also like to thank all the person I have interviewed for this thesis. They were kind enough to donate their time to meet with me. They were more than cooperative and welcoming. 政治大 Technology, Albert Lee from Hex Safety, Viola Cheng from Good Food, Tammy Hu from 立. towards me. James Hill from Winkler Partners, Jasmine Li and I-Ter Lu from DA.AI. ‧ 國. 學. DOMI, and Yuchi Lai and Michelle Chang from Greenvines.. I would also like to specially thank Kenny Chang, from Jia-Wei. He was also kind enough to. ‧. give me his time for an interview. By being the vice-chairman of B Lab Taiwan, and my. y. Nat. sit. supervisor during an internship in his firm, he was of incredible help to me. Especially by. n. al. er. io. helping me organize all the interviews, contacting the companies, but also by being of good. i n U. v. advice. He allowed me to learn more about B Corp by conversing with him and through the internship.. Ch. engchi. i. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(4) Abstract How Do B Corps Taiwan Attract, Retain and Engage Talent By Enora Vasseur In today’s word, employees are increasingly looking for a work with a purpose. Previous literature has been proving that companies using business as a force for good respond to this need. Such businesses are socially responsible businesses, engaged in CSR or Social Enterprises for instance. They care about their employees, community, society and the environment. This. 政治大. research tries to understand how B Corporations in Taiwan attract, engage and retain talent. B. 立. Corporations are a community of companies that hold themselves to the highest standards of. ‧ 國. 學. social responsibility. They have received a certification for this. We also try to understand what. ‧. is the advantage of this certification in attracting retaining and engaging talent. The main results of the study show that B Corps Taiwan attract, engaged and retain talent by focusing on their. y. Nat. io. sit. work environment and by building a culture of team spirit. Regarding the advantage of the. n. al. er. certification the results show that the B Corp certification can be a communication tool to attract talent.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Keywords: CSR, B Corporation, Employees. ii. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 2. Literature Review ................................................................................................................. 3 2.1. An Overview of Using Business as a Force for Good ..................................................... 3 2.1.1. Corporate Social Responsibility ............................................................................. 3 2.1.2. Social Enterprise .................................................................................................... 7 2.1.3. Common Points and Differences. ........................................................................... 9. 政治大. 2.2. The Need for Certification............................................................................................. 11. 立. 2.2.1. Why do we need certification? ............................................................................. 11. ‧ 國. 學. 2.2.2. What are “business for good” certifications ......................................................... 14 2.2.3. Are certifications really working? ........................................................................ 16. ‧. 2.3. The B Corporation Certification ................................................................................... 17. y. Nat. io. sit. 2.3.1. What are B Corps? ............................................................................................... 17. n. al. er. 2.3.2. Why Choose B Corps ........................................................................................... 19. Ch. i n U. v. 2.3.3. The Rise of B Corps ............................................................................................. 21. engchi. 2.4. Impact of “business for good” on employees ............................................................... 23 3. Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 26 3.1. The Choice of Interviewees ........................................................................................... 26 3.1.1. Sampling type and size. ........................................................................................ 26 3.1.2. Choice of companies to interview. ....................................................................... 27 3.2. The Interviews and the Interview Guide........................................................................ 32 3.2.1. General information about conducting the interviews ......................................... 32 3.2.2. More in Depth: Choice of question ...................................................................... 33 iii. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(6) 3.3. Data analysis ................................................................................................................. 38 3.3.1. Coding .................................................................................................................. 39 3.3.2. Categorizing ......................................................................................................... 40 4. Analysis of Interviews Process........................................................................................... 42 4.1. Independent analysis of interviews ............................................................................... 42 4.1.1. Winkler Partners: .................................................................................................. 42 4.1.2. Jia-Wei CPAs ........................................................................................................ 46 4.1.3. DA.AI Technology ............................................................................................... 50. 政治大. 4.1.4. Hex Safety ............................................................................................................ 54. 立. 4.1.5. Good food and Ming Yung ................................................................................... 57. ‧ 國. 學. 4.1.6. DOMI ................................................................................................................... 62 4.1.7. Greenvines ............................................................................................................ 65. ‧. 4.2. Cross analysis of interviews .......................................................................................... 69. y. Nat. io. sit. 4.2.1. Questions overview .............................................................................................. 69. n. al. er. 4.2.2. NVIVO global results........................................................................................... 71. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 5. Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 77 5.1. Engage talent................................................................................................................. 77 5.2. Retain talent .................................................................................................................. 78 5.3. Attract talent .................................................................................................................. 78 6. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 79 Reference ................................................................................................................................. 81 Appendix ................................................................................................................................. 85. iv. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(7) 6.1. Appendix 1 Interview guide ........................................................................................... 85 6.2. Appendix 2 Questionnaire sent before ........................................................................... 90 6.3. Appendix 3: Greenvines samples................................................................................... 95 6.4. Appendix 4: Summary tables of answers for each section ............................................ 96. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. v. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(8) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Purpose of Social Enterprise ....................................................................................... 9 Figure 2: CSR and Social Enterprise paths to value creation................................................... 10 Figure 3: The hybrid spectrum ................................................................................................. 11 Figure 4: Levels of CSR engagement ...................................................................................... 13 Figure 5: Relationship CSR, SE, B Corps ................................................................................ 19 Figure 6: The Rise of B Corps the last Decade ........................................................................ 21 Figure 7: Organization Chart EVP Coding .............................................................................. 40. 政治大 Figure 9: Hierarchy Categories立 Winkler Partners .................................................................... 44 Figure 8: Organization Chart other Codes ............................................................................... 41. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 10: Hierarchy Categories Jia-Wei ................................................................................. 48 Figure 11: Coding hierarchy for work environment................................................................. 49. ‧. Figure 12: Hierarchy Categories Da. Ai. .................................................................................. 52. sit. y. Nat. Figure 13: Hierarchy Categories Hex ....................................................................................... 55. er. io. Figure 14: Hierarchy categories for Good Food and Ming Yung ............................................. 60. al. v i n C ................................................................................... Figure 16: Hierarchy Categories DOMIh 63 engchi U n. Figure 15: Coding hierarchy work environment Good Food and Ming Yung ......................... 61. Figure 17: Hierarchy Categories Greenvines ........................................................................... 66 Figure 18: Hierarchy Categories for all the interviews ............................................................ 72 Figure 19: Attract + Retain + Engage Talent Across Interviews .............................................. 75 Figure 21: Communication and communication culture and values ........................................ 76 Figure 20: Team spirit, be better and caring values.................................................................. 76. vi. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(9) LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Classification questions .............................................................................................. 28 Table 2: Ranking of 19 B Corps Taiwan .................................................................................. 29 Table 3: Selected Companies Basic Information ..................................................................... 31 Table 4: Answers Question 1 .................................................................................................... 69 Table 5: The categories found in most interviews .................................................................... 71. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. vii. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(10) 1. Introduction In recent years it has become obvious that employees are not looking for the same job characteristic they were 30 years ago. The type of work they want, but also their mentally towards the company they work for has changed. Employees, as well as consumers, investors and communities, desire companies that are responsible, ethical, less self-centered, or less profit-centered than they were. In order to attract and retain the best talents companies need to. 政治大 last decades, we can notice立 that this change has started. Companies are now behaving more. understand this phenomenon and change their behaviors, culture and way of thinking. In the. ‧ 國. 學. responsibly. Such companies are the one engaged in Corporate Social Responsibility, which are socially responsible, or have a mission to solve a social issue, such as Social Enterprises for. ‧. instance. We can say that those companies are using business as a force for good.. y. Nat. sit. However, with an increasing number of consumers and employees expressing this need,. n. al. er. io. disadvantages of business for good phenomenon appeared. Indeed, an increasing number of. i n U. v. companies are now presenting themselves as socially responsible, but , they are not. They would. Ch. engchi. engage in marketing campaign to present themselves as green, ecological. But the changes made are only superficial, and this green appearance would not be a part of the culture of the company. This is greenwashing. With greenwashing appeared the need for certification. Certification of ethical products but also of socially responsible operations. This is where our research intervenes. We are focusing on one certification in particular, the B Corporation. It certifies a company as socially responsible. This certification is currently considered as the most significant one. Indeed, it is holding the companies certified to the highest standards of socially responsible behaviors. It is also the most. 1. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(11) international. We are asking ourselves if companies certified as B Corps are better than other businesses for good to attract retain and engage talent, and more specifically how they do it. We will also try to understand what are the advantages of this certification. Being in Taiwan our research topic is How do B Corps Taiwan, attract, retain and engage talent? In order to answer this question 8 companies from the B Corp community in Taiwan were interviewed.. 立. 政治大. This paper will be composed of 3 main sections. First a review of the preceding literature. We. ‧ 國. 學. will first define what are business for good corporations, by introducing the concept of. ‧. Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Enterprise and their link to the B Corporations. We will be explaining after the need for third party certification and explain in detail how B Corporation. y. Nat. io. sit. work. Secondly, a section where we will review the methodology followed. We will explain the. n. al. er. choice of the companies interviewed and the process of the interviews and their analysis. And. Ch. i n U. v. finally, a section where we will discuss the main results of the interviews and their implications towards the topic.. engchi. Acronyms: -. B Corp(s): B Corporation(s) (companies that received a certification from B Lab). -. CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility. -. EVP: Employer Value Proposition (reason why an employee joins or stay in a company).. 2. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(12) 2. Literature Review 2.1. An Overview of Using Business as a Force for Good In recent years there has been an important change in consumer’s point of view regarding branding and attention to the type of product purchased. Since the Enron scandal, in 2002, consumers have been more attentive to corporations’ operations and unethical behavior. Because of such a scandal the change in consumers’ mentality was accentuated. This lead to. 政治大. the growth of new types of business models: “using business as a force for good”.. 立. ‧ 國. 學. This thesis focuses on the case of B Corporations, which have one mission, “using business as a force for good”. In today’s world there are many ways to qualify what we call “business for. ‧. good”: Social Enterprise, Corporate Social Responsibility, Socially Responsible, sustainable. sit. y. Nat. companies…. It is easy to get confused between one and another and misunderstand the. io. al. er. differences. Companies using business as a force for good can be simply defined as more than. n. regular for-profit companies. However, in this first section of the thesis we will focus on. Ch. engchi. defining more in depth what are business for good.. i n U. v. We are first going to focus on CSR and Social Enterprise, which are the most important regarding the topic. We will define and go through the history and important changes of those two business for good models. Later, we will enter the subject of B Corporations. And finally, we will explain how this concept of using business as a force for good relates to employees.. 2.1.1. Corporate Social Responsibility History According to Finch 2005 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR, also called Corporate. 3. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(13) Conscience, Corporate Citizenship or responsible business) is defined as “operating a business on a reliable, sustainable, desirable basis that respects ethical values, people, communities and the environment” (Finch, 2005, p.2). Even though the CSR movement has been increasingly important over the last 20 years, the debate of CSR goes further back. The first real debate regarding Corporate Social Responsibility occurred in the years 1931 and 1932, between A.A. Berle and E. Merrick Dodd. The same debate is still going on in the twenty-. 政治大 ideologies have remained the same; “Each debate was the product of its time, but each also 立. first century. Through all this years it has evolved and changed forms however the core. closely resembled its predecessor” (Wells, 2002, p.79). The main question of the debate. ‧ 國. 學. surrounding CSR is knowing what is the role of corporations. More precisely, whether or not. ‧. corporations are too powerful and should their impact on the community and society be. y. Nat. regulated. The earlier debate in the 30’s between A.A. Berle and E. Merrick Dodd revolved. er. io. sit. around the large corporations in the USA. Their increasing power in the political arena and their impact on the direct community and their closer stakeholders. Today’s debate goes further and. al. n. v i n includes all companies and all their it asks more important and deeper C hstakeholders. Moreover, engchi U questions such as: what does corporations owe to its shareholders, its workers, the larger community…? (Wells, 2002). In all the debates about CSR there is one that is considered to be the most important one. For many, this is the start of the movement that changes mentalities. It is the debate, in the 1970’s, between Edward Freeman and Milton Friedman, also called the stakeholder vs shareholder theory (respectively). Even though they are not the only two players of the debate, they are often considered to be the most important voices. Friedman believes in the shareholder theory. He argues that the goal of companies is too maximize shareholder value. The shareholder theory 4. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(14) is based on the principal-agent theory, and states that the role of managers, executives, is to bring wealth to the business’s owners. In that sense, according to Friedman, being engaged in CSR activities is unethical because it is using the companies’ resources for other reasons than maximizing shareholder wealth. Which leads to production inefficiency (Friedman, 1970). Therefore, he argues that being engaged in CSR is wrong from a moral point of view, because it is not acting in the best interest of the shareholders. And from an economic point of view, because it is not using resources efficiently.. 政治大 On the other hand, Edward Freeman argues that a firm’s responsibility is not only to its 立. shareholder but to its stakeholders as well. This theory emerged in the mid 1980’s, a decade. ‧ 國. 學. after the stakeholder theory. In 1984 Freeman defined shareholders as “any group or individual. ‧. who is affected by or can affect the achievement of an organization’s objectives”. (Freeman,. y. Nat. 1984/2001). The primary stakeholders are the shareholders, investors, employees, customers,. er. io. sit. suppliers, the government and the community where the company is located. However, it doesn’t stop there, the secondary stakeholders include the media, the future generation, the. al. n. v i n environment... The lack of attention or its non-recognition can generate C toh a primary stakeholder engchi U the failure of the organization (Clarkson, 1995). In that sense it is morally responsible to dedicate resources and change operating processes to have a positive impact on employees, communities, the environment. Overall, the stakeholder theory states that companies should act in an ethical way. Later on, the literature on the stakeholder theory stated that the economic reasoning of Friedman was outdated. Being engaged in CSR would make sense economically in the long run. Indeed, at the beginning, starting CSR activities is time consuming and costly. However, in the long run it is worth it. Some example from the operation’s point of view are that by reducing a company 5. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(15) footprint, one might reduce its use of electricity, water which leads to costs savings. The other example is from the brand image perspective. Being engage in CSR would prevent scandals which are extremely costly to firms in terms of reputation, brand loyalty. Moreover, being involved with the community can also be helpful when the company its support for a project (Asemah, Okpanachi & Edegoh, 2013). Even though this approach to CSR is true and was very useful in attracting companies to join the movement we can have some reserves on this aspect of CSR. Indeed, it is economically beneficial in the long run to use CSR. However, we can be. 政治大. reluctant to use this argument to convince companies to become socially responsible. Some. 立. believe you should be socially responsible because it is the right thing to do, the best for the. ‧ 國. 學. society. It should be part of your mission and values as a corporation. Moreover, we think talking about CSR in terms of cost saving is the instigation of the negative aspect of CSR. Nat. y. ‧. nowadays that we will comment on later on (greenwashing).. er. io. sit. What it means to be a firm engaged in CSR. Another definition of CSR than Finch’s is: "Continued commitment by the companies to. al. n. v i n maintain ethical behavior and contribute while improving the quality C h to economic development engchi U of life for its staff and their families, the community in which they work and society in general.”. (The World Business Council for Sustainable Development –WBCSD1). Therefore, businesses engaged in CSR try to operate in a sustainable way. They do not think only about short-term decision but of the impact of each decision on the long term. They should also ask their self is it the ethical thing to do? for each decision they take. In the day to day business this could be translated by the impact on the environment: reducing the carbon footprint (use less electricity, think about 0 waste cycle), the impact on the community (support local NGOs, volunteering…), the impact internationally (try to engage in faire trade for instance) and the impact on workers. 6. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(16) (trying to increase the well-being of staffs, be vigilant about issues such as discrimination of race or sex, have equal and fair pay…). However, measuring the impact of this changes is difficult. Therefore, like thinking of all stakeholders and not only the shareholders, when talking about CSR you do not think only about the one bottom line but of the triple bottom line. The triple bottom line is a concept first introduced by John Elkington in 1994, it means that instead of looking at the performance of a company only in terms of profit we should look at it. 政治大 their social impact (People) and environmental (Planet), to know if they are performing well. 立. in terms or Profit, People, Planet, the three Ps. This means that companies should also measure. Elkington also explains that the only way to be completely socially responsible is also to be. ‧ 國. 學. completely transparent (Elkington, 1997). However, even though this introduced a new way to. ‧. look at companies, it is still difficult to measure social and environmental impacts as they are. y. Nat. not as quantitative as profit. Therefore, recent years have seen the emergence of many standards. er. io. sit. and guidelines to report on CSR. The most commonly used is GRI Global Reporting Initiative. It helps companies to have a structured way to measure CSR initiatives and allows. n. al. benchmarking.. 2.1.2.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Social Enterprise. History Social Enterprise or social entrepreneurship is a more recent phenomenon than CSR. It has been studied by different approached and perspectives for more than 20 years. Even though most academics agree to say that there is no clear definition of social enterprise, the one of Loosemore is quite self-explanatory: “profit-making business, which trade for a social purpose” (Loosemore, 2015, p.724). The phenomenon has recently been growing and studied, however, it is older than that. Any company making profit that serves a social cause can be defined as a 7. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(17) Social Enterprise. Therefore, we can go back to the 1840’s in England where a cooperative was set up to provide good quality food to poor workers. What it means to be a Social Enterprise Contrary to Socially Responsible Corporation (when you conduct your business as usual and use your profit to give back to society or change your operations to limit your impact), in the case of Social Enterprise, your business is directly aiming at solving social issues. Some. 政治大 companies selling products to the bottom of the pyramid for instance. Social Enterprises are 立 examples of Social Enterprises would be companies in the renewable energy fields, or. often considered as hybrid organizations because they are between non- profit organization and. ‧ 國. 學. for-profit (Yunus, Moingeon & Lehmann-Ortega, 2010 and Galaskiewicz & Barringer, 2012).. ‧. Indeed, on one hand they are close to non-profit because they do not focus on profit. y. Nat. maximization but more on social impact model. They have a social mission and care about. er. io. sit. social profit, like non-profit organization do (Yunus, Moingeon, & Lehmann-Ortega, 2010). Social Enterprises also use the triple bottom line measuring tool, however they focused more. al. n. v i n on people and planet than on profit. hand, they are close to profit organization also. C On h ethenother gchi U Yunus, Moingeon, Lehmann-Ortega, explained that the main matter on which non-profit and Social Enterprise differ is their financing. Non-profits depend on donations and government founding to support their activities. However, like for-profits, Social Enterprises are selffinanced. Indeed, they have operations, services, products, customers, remunerated employees. 8. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(18) and of course revenues! (Yunus, Moingeon, & Lehmann-Ortega, 2010). Here is a diagram1 that summarize the operation and purpose of Social Enterprises Figure 1: Purpose of Social Enterprises. Operations. • RESSOURCES: • Capital • Talent. • Creation of Social Values. • IDEAS: • Social solution • Income. Investments. Results. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大 REINVESTMENT. ‧. 2.1.3. Common Points and Differences.. Nat. sit. y. Therefore, we can now say that even though they differ in their methods, both corporations. n. al. er. io. engaged in CSR and Social Enterprises aim at creating social value. They both favor the. i n U. v. stakeholder theory above the shareholder theory. And both make use of the triple bottom line to. Ch. engchi. measure their performance. According to Andrea Silva Niño (2015) the three main common points are the social welfare (environment, human rights, labor rights, consumer protection and fair trade among others), the concern for the future and the will to restore social order (Silva Niño, 2015). Therefore, we can say those two types of corporations can be qualified as “business for good” companies. Moreover, firms practicing CSR and Social Enterprises are not mutually exclusive, indeed they can support each other. For instance, a Social Enterprise can also be practicing CSR, and sometimes CSR firms partner with NGOs or existing Social. 1. Source Figure 1: Andrea Carolina Silva Niño, 2015. 9. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(19) Enterprise to create a new Social Enterprise. What is the most important to remember is that they all create social value. The main difference is how they create social value and the purpose of their business. It is important to have both because, most of the time, Social Enterprises are more effective to bring social value because it is the core of their existence. However not all companies in the world can follow a social impact model, we still need accountants, lawyers… And it is not the right. 政治大 sustainability. Therefore we also need CSR practices. Here is a diagram 立. solution to think that only Social Enterprises and NGOs should be looking towards 2. of how CSR and. Social Enterprises differ in their way but reach the same goal:. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 2: CSR and Social Enterprise paths to value creation. Create positive social and environmental impact. y. Social Enterprise. Nat. ‧. CSR. sit. n. al. er. io. limit negative social and environemental impact SOCIAL VALUE CREATION. 2. Ch. i n U. v. SOCIAL VALUE CREATION. engchi. Source Figure 2: Own. 10. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(20) However, Social Enterprises and CSR are not the only way to be sustainable and responsible. We described those two types because we consider they are the most important to understand when talking about B Corps. Here is what we call the hybrid spectrum, all the type of firms trying to create social value from non-profit to for-profit:. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 Figure 3: The hybrid spectrum. Nat. sit. y. From now on, when we will be referring to “business for good” or using business as a force. n. al. er. io. for good it will include notions such has CSR, Socially Responsible Business and Social. i n U. v. Enterprise (all types of hybrid corporations excluding non-profits and traditional for-profit).. Ch. engchi. 2.2. The Need for Certification 2.2.1. Why do we need certification? The importance of “businesses for good” has been slowly and steadily growing since the 90’s. However, there has been two times when the phenomenon has made a significant jump. Indeed, we can say that there are two milestones up to now in the rise of “business for good”: the Enron scandal and the 2008 crisis. Those two milestones have shown the negative aspects of “business for good”, especially in the case of CSR.. 11. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(21) According to the Legitimacy Theory the survival of businesses depends on the stakeholders, and it is all about the idea of a social contract. The notion of “social contract” is when we consider that there is a link between what society expects of a company and the way the company is conducting operations (Patten, 1991). This means that if the difference is too important between what stakeholder expect and what the business is doing, it will not survive. Of course, all stakeholders have the power to stop a business from operating, however the most important one here would be the consumers. A company first looks at what consumers are. 政治大. expected, want. And if there is no consumer there is no company.. 立. The Enron scandal was the biggest scandal revealing the unethical behavior of a company.I It. ‧ 國. 學. opened consumers’ eyes and made them realize this is not what we want, we want companies. ‧. to be better. The same reasoning happened with the mortgage crisis. It took extreme cases of. y. Nat. unethical behavior to open the consumers’ eyes. They are now requesting moral and ethical. er. io. sit. products and services, which forces companies to change in the right directions. Indeed, according to a study conducted by the Nielson Company “Consumers are trying to be. al. n. v i n responsible citizens of the world, C and they expect the same from Corporations. So when it comes hengchi U to purchasing, they are doing their homework. Checking labels before buying. Looking at web. sites for information on business and manufacturing practices. Paying attention to public opinion on specific brands in the news or on social media.” (The Sustainability imperative by Nielson, 2015). However, those two scandals also highlighted the negative aspect of “business for good”. Businesses that claim to be “business for good” but actually aren’t. This is a big issue with CSR, and it happened a lot between 2002 (Enron) and 2008 (crisis). Indeed, after Enron a lot of companies started to engage in CSR to respond to society’s expectations, however they didn’t 12. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(22) commit to it, used it as marketing campaigns, brand image, this lead to what we call greenwashing. Disadvantages of “business for good”: Because of the complexity of CSR, it is difficult sometimes to be fully committed to it. CSR is only good when a company is completely and fully committed to it, when it is part of their core values and even mission, when it is part of their culture. Only then it will be part of all everyday. 政治大 fire people? Here are the incremental steps to CSR : 立. decisions the company makes, from do I really need to print this report? Do I really need to 3. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 4: Levels of CSR engagement Therefore, being committed to CSR 100% is difficult, and greenwashing can occur in two ways. First a company knows it is neither sustainable or socially responsible but will create a “green” marketing campaign for their brand image. Second, a company thinks it is sustainable but 3. Source Figure 4: http://www.taniaellis.com/consulting/social-business-consulting/. 13. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(23) actually is not doing enough and social or environmental scandal could still happen. We talk less about greenwashing regarding Social Enterprise however the biggest disadvantage of Social Enterprises is their ability to make profit. As explained previously Social Enterprises pay less attention to profit and sometimes the financial side is not well managed, the company is not profitable and the business has to go bankrupt. Therefore, Social Enterprises have gain this reputation and a lot of business are reluctant to be called Social Enterprise because they do. 政治大. not want to be considered unviable companies.. 立. However, a need to solve greenwashing has arisen in recent years and the way to protect. ‧ 國. 學. consumer for greenwashing is transparency. Since 2002 the reflection for standardization and reporting of CSR has arisen (Johnston, 2012) and standards like ISO 26000, GRI appeared.. ‧. According to Harvard Business Review nowadays 92% of the 250 largest companies produce. sit. y. Nat. a CSR report compared to only 64% in 2015 (Meier & Cassar, 2018). However, is this enough?. n. al. er. io. Who reads the reports fully? How can we make sure that those CSR report are of good quality?. v. Moreover, it is often difficult to know if the company is making real effort and real impact by. Ch. engchi. i n U. only reading those reports. Consumers need proof of commitment: “authentically demonstrate commitment to social and environmental impact build consumer trust and business value” (The sustainability imperative by Nielson, 2015). Outside of mandatory sustainability disclosure (often because of law requirement) the disclosure is voluntary and not reviewed by a third party, how can we trust it? This is where the need for certification appears.. 2.2.2. What are “business for good” certifications There are many kinds of certifications and nowadays it is difficult to know which one does what. Different segments of a business can be certified, for instance a product, a recruitment. 14. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(24) process or even on the entire company’s operations. According to Ecolabel there is 464 types of labels or certifications that look at “business for good”, some of them are national like the AB Label in France (Agriculture Biologique: organic agriculture), and some of them are international (like B Corporations). More than different segments of the business, labels can also have different objectives. Indeed, some focus only on the environmental impact some only on the social impact, moreover some focuses on one specific aspect such as water usage for instance. The most important thing is that the certification is delivered by a third party which. 政治大. reviewed the practices of the business. Not all of those certifications have the same level of. 立. Here are some well-known certifications of products:. 學. ‧ 國. standards.. ‧. “ENERGY STAR: An international standard for energy efficient consumer products overseen. y. Nat. by the Environmental Protection Agency.. er. io. sit. Cradle to Cradle Certified: It aims at assessing a product’s safety to humans and the environmental design for future life cycles.. al. n. v i n Fair Trade Certified: Certifies C that products meet environmental, labor, and developmental hengchi U standards.. Rainforest Alliance Certified: Appears on products that meet crop standards that encourage sustainable agriculture and conserve biodiversity” (Definitions retrieved from Green Plus website)4 In the case of certification for an entire organization rather than products or services, there is only a very few limited number of this certification. The most internationally recognized is B 4. Definitions of certification copied from http://gogreenplus.org/nuts-and-bolts-guide/planet-nuts-and-bolts-. guide/sustainable-purchasing/product-sustainability-certifications/. 15. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(25) Corporations, which focuses on the best practices. Another one is SA 8000, however SA 8000 is of a lower standard than B Corporations and doesn’t cover the environmental aspect as extensively. According to the SA 8000’s website here is what they focus on: Child Labor, Forced or Compulsory Labor, Health and Safety, Freedom of Association and Right to, Collective Bargaining, Discrimination, Disciplinary Practices, Working Hours, Remuneration, Management System. (sa-intl.org). A third process or company certification, more similar to B Corps is the Green Plus certification. As for B Corps companies who apply to Green plus. 政治大. certification must obtain a minimum score on a survey, that analyses their sustainability.. 立. However, compared to B Corps, Green Plus certification focuses on People, Planet, Profit. The. ‧ 國. 學. certification is also lesser known in the international arena than B Corps. (gogreenplus.org) Moreover there is another way to think about certification, in the same way that CPA firm certify. ‧. Nat. 2.2.3. Are certifications really working?. al. er. io. sit. reporting and to certify the quality of their social report.. y. companies’ financial statements now many CPA firms offer to guide companies through CSR. n. v i n As was told previously, the Legitimacy C h Theory states Uthat there is a legitimacy gap between engchi what society expects and what the company is doing. In this context, we can say that the role. of certification is to reduce the legitimacy gap. Certification is a trustworthy tool for stakeholders to know the real impact of a “business for good” corporation. This positive relation has been proven by Etilé and Teyssier in 2016. They conducted a research to compare whether there was a difference in stakeholder actions toward non-CSR firms, firms that used CSR as part of their brand representation without third party certification, and firms with third party certification. They concluded that having third party certification was the best way to attract stakeholder attention: “third-party certification clearly yields gains compared to situations. 16. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(26) where signaling is not possible. Branding yields lower efficiency gains than third-party certification, as CSR brands are not of higher quality than those when there is no signaling. […] CSR must be incorporated into brand-building strategies through third-party certification.” (Etilé & Teyssier, 2016, p.426).. 2.3. The B Corporation Certification 2.3.1. What are B Corps?. 政治大. B Corps are all companies that receive the certification “B Corporation” delivered by the B Lab.. 立. The B Lab is a non-profit organization, co-founded in 2006 by Jay Coen Gilbert, Bart Houlahan,. ‧ 國. 學. and Andrew Kassoy. They believed that non-profits and governments lack the resources to solve social issue, and that the best way to solve them is to use businesses. They believe that. ‧. businesses should be used as a force for good! The first B Corp was certified in 2007. To be. sit. y. Nat. certified you must be “meeting rigorous standards of social and environmental performance,. n. al. er. io. accountability, and transparency” (bcorporations.net). Therefore, you must meet the. v. performance and legal requirements of B Lab. The performance of a company’s impact on. Ch. engchi. i n U. stakeholders is done through the B impact assessment. The B impact assessment is a questionnaire comparing companies’ practices to the “highest standards of overall social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability” (bcorporation.net). It focuses on 5 aspects, governance, workers, community, customers and environment. The legal requirement is there to make sure that social values, sustainability is part of the DNA of the company and will stay this way through company growth, change of leadership, even from going from private to public (bcorporations.net).. 17. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(27) B Corps are for-profit companies, they can be start-ups, SMEs, multinationals, subsidiaries, public or private, or even transit from private to public. They all must have to meet the same performance requirement (which is a score of 80/200 on the impact assessment). However, they do not have to hold themselves to the same standards of transparency. All companies must disclose their summary results of the B impact assessment, however public companies and subsidiaries must disclose a more complete version of their B impact assessment. Out of April 14th, 2018, according to the B Corporations website, there is 2,457 B Corps across 54 countries. 政治大. and 130 industries. According to a study of April 2017 by KKS advisors 62% of B Corps were. 立. in the United-States (where the movement was born), 15% in Europe (led by the United. ‧ 國. 學. Kingdom), South America (12%, led by Chile), and Oceania (8%, led by Australia) (“B Corps & Benefit Corporations[...]” by KKS advisors, 2017). There is 20 B Corps in Taiwan (reported. ‧. on the B Corps website) the first one was certified in June 2014 (DOMI Earth) and the last on. Nat. er. io. sit. y. in October 2017 (OBank).. Moreover, going back to our first discussion, B Corps are find across 130 industries, therefore. al. n. v i n they do not necessarily need toC serve a social mission. Indeed, all B Corps are not Social hengchi U Enterprises. For instance, the latest company joining B Corps rang and which is now the biggest B Corp in the world is the North American subsidiary of the French Company Danone (certified April 2018). Danone is not a Social Enterprise has its products (food and beverages that can be find in regular supermarkets) do not serve a social mission. However, there is among B Corps community companies that serve a social mission and that were qualified of Social Enterprise. However, because of the standards of the B impact assessment all B Corps are engaged in CSR activities, and even more use CSR as a “value-creator” (Top of the pyramid, see p.13). Therefore, we can qualify the relationship between CSR, Social Enterprise and B Corps as described in. 18. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(28) the diagram5 below:. 立. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 5: Relationship CSR, SE, B Corps. 2.3.2. Why Choose B Corps. ‧. The Best of the Best for the World!. sit. y. Nat. The movement B Corp is considered to be the most powerful and influential to have a real. al. er. io. impact on business, change their mind and create a community. This is because companies with. v. n. the B Corporation certification must hold theme-self to the highest standards and the B Lab,. Ch. engchi. i n U. through its certification process make sure that they do. Indeed, first of all, the B impact assessment is assessing companies based on the best up to date standards. The oversight of the assessment is the responsibility of the Standards Advisory Council. An independent committee which is composed of 20 to 22 members each the best in their field. The first assessment was constructed by analyzing the best practices in recognized sustainable firms. The B impact assessment is renewed every 2 years to include the newest standards. (bcorporation.net) Moreover, the B Corporation certification is a 2 years term, meaning that after 2 years. 5. Source figure 5: Own.. 19. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(29) companies must retake the assessment. This forces companies to be constantly maintained to the highest standards, benchmark themselves to other companies and ensure that social and environmental impact follows the company’s growth. When retaking the impact assessment, it doesn’t only measures if you are still doing what you were doing two years ago, but also measures your improvement. To get the same or a higher score you must have improved. Not evolving will result in a lower grade. For B Lab there is always the possibility to do more!. 政治大 assessment test it needs to be reviewed by B Lab. The companies will be interviewed and not 立 Finally, the process of getting accredited is long and difficult. After doing the B impact. only executives but employees to ensure the truthfulness of the answers. The companies need. ‧ 國. 學. to submit additional documentation to support the answers to the assessment… After being. ‧. certified all B Corps are subject to at least a 20% chance of onsite company visit by a B Lab. y. Nat. employee to check if “what is preached is practiced”. Moreover, there is some types of B Corps,. er. io. sit. such as for subsidiaries, for which this visit is mandatory. A proof that B Corps movement is the path to the future, is that world known socially responsible businesses decided to join the B. al. n. v i n Corp community because they believe for and its mission. Such businesses are C h in what it stand U engchi Patagonia, most recently Danone, but most importantly Ben & Jerrys, the first company in the world to produce a social report. (bcorporations.net) Therefore, I believe that B Corps are the best companies to represent positive social and. environmental impact. When studying a phenomenon, you should focus on the bests that exist, and therefore bring the best examples possible. Doing so brings meaning to the research and can help future companies to benchmark themselves to the highest level.. 20. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(30) 2.3.3. The Rise of B Corps Evolution of B Corps: The number of B Corps has been steadily growing for the last 10 years. With the exception of 2017 with a slower growth (only 10 new more B Cops certified compared to 2016). With the data given in the B Corporation website you can see on the growth chart below of the B Corp movement (bcorporation.net/recently certified). 2500. 政治大. Evolution of B Corps. 立. 2000. 2009. 2010. 355. y. 124. 257. a l2011 2012 2013 2014 i v2015 n Ch U engchi Total per year. 590. sit. 2008. 0. 68. 59. 181. n. 28. io. 25. Nat. 500. 580. er. 1000. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. 1500. 2354. 87 2016. 2017. 2018. Cumulative. Figure 6: The Rise of B Corps the last Decade We can see that there is a difference between the number of B Corps cited on the literature review and what the website discloses. For instance, according to Harriman in 2015 there was 1358 B Corps. However, the data of the B Corporations shows that there was only 1097 B Corps at the end of 2015. This is because the website only discloses the companies that are still certified in 2018. This demonstrates that not all the companies are fit to comply with B Corps high standards, and do not get reaccredited.. 21. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(31) Why companies are becoming B Corporations? In the recent years there has been an increase in research on the B Corps movement. Some of them have focused on understanding why this movement has gained recognition and why companies choose to become a B Corporation. In a Harvard Business Review article, Kim and Schifeling conducted a research and concluded that there were two main reasons why businesses are becoming B Corps. The first reason is because they want to stand out. This relates to our discussion on greenwashing earlier. They found that in industries where companies tend. 政治大. to engage in small acts of CSR to demonstrate a social image there was more B Corporations.. 立. This because those companies want to stand out, showing their real commitment to a social. ‧ 國. 學. cause. This is mainly the case for small companies “that have long been committed to social and environmental causes” (Kim & al., 2016). The second reason is that “certifying firms. ‧. believed the major crises of our time are a result of the way we conduct business, and they. Nat. sit. y. became a B Corporation to join the movement of creating a new economy with a new set of. er. io. rules and redefine the way people perceive success in the business world.” (Kim & al., 2016).. al. n. v i n Another research, conducted by KKS four reasons why companies become C hadvisors 2017, states engchi U. B Corporations. Those reasons are: pursuing a purpose beyond profits, upholding transparency, demonstrating authenticity and gaining recognition for what’s already there. We can see that there is similarity between those motivations and the ones stated in the Harvard Business Review. The main common point is that most of those motivations relate to business that were “born to be B corps”. Meaning that those companies acted as B Corps before being certified. Therefore, most of the current B Corps didn’t need to change how they were operating. Their mission and values and those of B Lab seemed to be a perfect match. This is also the conclusion of Harriman, 2015 “The vast majority of the 1,358 B Corps certified to date were operating in. 22. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(32) the spirit of a B Corp prior to the existence of the term or the standards that substantiate it.” (Harriman, 2015, p.49). In her research Harriman also states that the rise of the B Corp movement as mainly been concentrated in the growth of a community for now. Business sharing the same values finally found a way to show it to the world and join the community. However, for now the B Corp movement as less efficiently attracted other businesses. Convincing businesses to change and. 政治大 website suggests. Not all newly certified corporations always renew their certification and stay 立 adopt this new mentality. This is also what the data on the number of B Corps found on the. a part of the B community. This is due to the level of the standards but also the difficulty for B. ‧ 國. 學. Lab to convince still for-profit business to become for-benefit businesses on the long term.. n. al. er. io. 2.4. Impact of “business for good” on employees. sit. y. Nat. (Harriman, 2015).. ‧. According to Harriman this is the new challenging step for the growth of the B Corps movement.. Ch. i n U. v. There has been numerous proof in the academic literature that what falls under the umbrella of. engchi. business as a force of good, and companies believing in this statement, has a positive impact on employees. Indeed, it has been shown that engaging in CSR or using a social model such as Social Enterprise allows company to attract talent. Moreover, it also increases job satisfaction and therefore leads to more engage employees and employees whom stay in companies. A study conducted by Rosa Chun 2016, demonstrates that firms truly engaged in CSR activities achieve better talent attraction than competitors: “when employees perceive an organization to hold high integrity, this leads to employee identification. This emotional attachment then leads to satisfaction, and eventually differentiation (unique attributes that employees perceive as. 23. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(33) better than competing employers).” (Chun, 2016). Moreover, a study conducted by Abhishek Bhati and Mathew Manimala suggests that through their social mission, Social Enterprise bring a sense of higher purpose to their employees which leads to more commitment to their job. (Abhishek & Manimala, 2011). Going back to the Legitimacy Theory, B Corporation reduce the legitimacy gap between stakeholders and companies has it has been proven by the certification and the high standards. 政治大 sensitive to the certification and it should be easier for B Corporations to attract and engage 立. of transparency of B Lab. Employees and prospective employees being stakeholder should be. employees. Moreover, in the B Corporation website we can see that among the reasons of. ‧ 國. 學. joining the movement, attracting and engaging employees is stating as one of the benefits of. ‧. being certified (bcorporation.net/become-a-b-corp). We can also read on the website that. y. Nat. according to a Harvard Business Review, millennials, which now represent 50% of the. er. io. sit. workforce, want work that connects to a larger purpose (bcorporation.net/become-a-b-corp). This is also proven by the statements of the experiences of some companies: “9 out of 10. al. n. v i n interviewees listed Azavea's B Corp C hstatus as why theyUwere interested in the job.” According engchi to Robert Cheetham, CEO, Azavea (bcorporation.net/become-a-b-corp).. However, we can now wonder if this is always true, is it the case for Taiwan? If yes how do B Corps do it? This leads us to our research topic: How do B Corps Taiwan Attract, Retain and Engage Talent? To answer this question, we based our research on the work of Botha, Bussin and Swardt, 2011. They showed on their study (on talent attraction and retention) that prospective and current employees use a number of variables to make an informant decision on whether to join or stay. 24. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(34) in a company. Those variables compose the Employer Value Proposition (EVP). The EVP is “defined as the unique set of attributes and benefits that will motivate target candidates to join a company and current employees to stay” (Botha, Bussin & Swardt 2011, p.3). The EVP can be categorized in four main elements: “work environment (this includes values, culture, quality of colleagues, managers and leaders), work content (including challenging work and work-life balance), benefits (including development and career growth, indirect financial reward), and remuneration (direct financial reward)” (Botha, Bussin & Swardt 2011, p.3).. 政治大. Those are the four categories an employer must bring value to for employees to make the. 立. decision to join or stay in the company.. ‧ 國. 學. Based on this study we can wonder based on witch category do B corps Taiwan bring higher. ‧. value than other companies? This leads two our 2 subsequent research questions:. sit. y. Nat. (1) On which category of the Employer Value Proposition do B Corps Taiwan focus on. n. al. er. io. to attract retain and engage talent?. Ch. i n U. v. (2) How does the B Corps certification help companies in attracting and retaining talent?. engchi. 25. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(35) 3. Methodology Because of the nature of my research questions the most appropriate type of research is exploratory. Therefore, I have decided to use interviews to gather primary data, but also use secondary data, noticeably from companies’ website to gather additional information. The section below explains firstly the reasoning in choosing the companies to be interviewed. Secondly the construction on the interview guide (structure, choice of questions.). Thirdly how. 政治大. the data analysis has been conducted.. 立. 3.1. The Choice of Interviewees. ‧ 國. 學. 3.1.1. Sampling type and size.. ‧. The population size is twenty companies as of April 2018. There are twenty B Corporation. sit. y. Nat. certified companies in Taiwan. However, the population size varies between twenty and twenty-. er. io. two. Indeed, there is currently one company in Taiwan which is becoming a B Corporation,. al. v i n C in Taiwan that wasUa B Corporation at the beginning of the Moreover, there is another companyh engchi n. however the company is not yet officially listed as part of the community at the time of writing.. study but failed to be reaccredited while this study was conducted (Ecolohas Energy Technology). In this study, I have been looking for B Corps in Taiwan from which other companies can benchmark themselves. Therefore, I have chosen to use an intensity sampling. An intensity sampling regroups rich in information individuals regarding the subject studied. In this case we need B Corps whom have great standards (high scores) and with strong employee relationship. Moreover, in order to see the role of B Corp certification, those companies need to have been. 26. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(36) certified for quite some time already. I have chosen to interview 8 out of the 20 B Corps of Taiwan. According to the rule of thumb 8 out 20 is a reasonable number to gather necessary information. More than 8 would have led to redundancy in the findings. When this decision was made there was twenty-one official B Corporations in Taiwan. Eight interviews represented 38% of the population.. 3.1.2. Choice of companies to interview.. 政治大. Determining what characteristics are important:. 立. In order to understand which part of the process to become B Corp are relevant to attracting,. ‧ 國. 學. retaining and engaging talent I have done a preceding analysis gathering primary data, based on the B impact assessment. Indeed, all companies have do validate the B impact assessment.. ‧. The B Impact Assessment is available online for anyone to take. Even though the questionnaire. Nat. sit. y. evolves depending on your answers, without answering precisely you still have access to all. n. al. er. io. basic questions companies need to answer. I have gathered all the questions and analyzed their relevance to the research topic.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The B impact assessment is composed of the 5 categories defined by B Lab. Governance, Workers, Community, Customers. I have chosen the B impact assessment as a tool to choose which company to interview because the disclosure of the score of those 5 categories is made mandatory by B Lab. This way the B impact assessment serves as a fair benchmarking tool to select the companies with the highest score in the relevant categories. In my analysis I have deleted the customers category, which has only one question. I then classified all 180 questions of the assessment on whether or not they were relevant to the research question. To classify a question as relevant, I used the 4 categories of the Employer 27. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(37) Value Proposition explained earlier: work environment, work content, benefit and career development and remuneration. If the positive answer to a question would bring value to one of the EVP category I would classify it as relevant. Here is a summary table of my results.. Table 1: Classification questions Governance Workers Community Environment. Total. Irrelevant. 16. 14. 35. 40. 105. Relevant. 8. 35. 20. 12. 75. 23%. 42%. % of relevance in category. 政71% 治 36%大. 33%. 立. We can see that out of the 180 questions, 42% are relevant and the categories containing the. ‧ 國. 學. highest number of relevant questions proportionally are 1. Workers 2. Community 3. Governance and 4. Environment.. ‧. Therefore, when choosing the companies to interview I selected companies with a high score. y. Nat. sit. combining workers and community, preferring high score in the worker category. At the time. n. al. er. io. of the analysis there was 21 B Corps in Taiwan, however according to the vice-chairman of B. i n U. v. Lab Taiwan, two of those companies are not involved in the organization, therefore only 19. Ch. engchi. companies are potential interviewees, 8 interviews now represent a 42% sampling. Ranking B Corps Taiwan: The next step was to rank the B Corps in Taiwan in order to choose the best companies, which are the most information resourceful. From the B Corporation website, I have gathered data on companies global scoring on the B impact assessment. As well as the sub-scoring of the workers and community categories because those are the most important ones to answer the research question, according to my previous analysis. The information was gathered for only the 19 companies with whom interviews were possible, excluding T-Global Technologies and Reborn. 28. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(38) Co, LTD. Here is the information gathered for the 19 other B Corps: Table 2: Ranking of 19 B Corps Taiwan Name. Global. Workers Community Number of. Score. Score. Score. Certified. certification since (months). Chia Pang Plastics. 81. 23. 37. 1. 21. Come True Social Enterprise Co.. 81. 19. 49. 1. 9. OrgBetter. 81. 20. 43. 1. 23. Wen Tang Tea Co. Ltd. 81. 26. 23. 1. 13. Orientea Enterprise Co., Ltd (Cha Tzu. 82. 23. 34. 1. 23. 30. 2. 31. 37. 1. 22. 44. 1. 7. 17. 1. 6. 28. 1. 24. 56. 1. 12. 37. 2. 26. 41. 1. 13. 43. 1. 20. 30. 2. 34. Tang). 立. Twine Fair trade Company. 88. 21. O-Bank. 89. 28. 91. 20. 93. 12. 93. 21. 98. 31. ‧ 國. Asher International Eco-Health. y. Nat. Enterprises Inc. Social Network Co (NPO Channel, 1 for. io. one). Good Food Greenvines. al. n. Winkler Partners. Ch. e118 n g c h i23U 100. 32. sit. Hex Safety. ‧. 25. 學. 86. INFINITAS Technology. er. Jia Wei CPAs. 政治大 85 35. v ni. DA.AI Technology. 126. 24. 51. 1. 24. DOMI. 128. 25. 55. 2. 55. Ecolohas Energy Technology. 138. 28. 33. 1. 21. Ming Yung Enterprise. 162. 24. 108. 1. 25. The companies have been ranked from the lowest global score to the highest. To choose the companies to interview, I have selected the best companies in each category according to the upper quartile, also called third quartile. The upper quartile represents the 25 best percent. To 3. find which term is the third quartile we use the formula 𝑄3 = 4 × (1 + 𝑛)), where n is the. 29. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(39) number of elements in the dataset. There are 19 elements in the dataset, the third quartile is the 15th elements for each category when in chronological order. Therefore, we select the 5 top companies in each category, which appear in red in this table and are summarized below: -. Global scoring: Upper quartile is 118. The 25% best companies are Greenvines, DA.AI Technology, DOMI, Ecolohas Technology, Ming Yung Enterprise.. -. Workers scoring: Upper quartile is 28. The 25% best companies are Jia-Wei CPAs, Winkler Partners, Good Food, Ecolohas Technology, O-Bank.. -. 政治大. Community scoring: Upper quartile is 49. The 25% best companies are Come True. 立. Social Enterprise Co., Asher International, DA.AI Technology, DOMI, Ming Yung. ‧ 國. -. 學. Enterprise.. Number of months since certification: Upper quartile is 25. The 25% best companies. ‧. are Jia-Wei CPAs, Social Network Co, Greenvines, DOMI, Ming Yung Enterprise.. y. Nat. er. io. sit. List of the 8 Interviews:. The process was to select the 8 best companies as part of my research, and in the case of the. al. n. v i n impossibility to obtain an interview of this company to select the next company in line. C with h eone ngchi U. Six companies of the previous list had at least two categories where they were among the 25 best percent: Jia-Wei CPAs, Greenvines, DA.AI Technology, DOMI, Ecolohas Technology, Ming Yung Enterprise. Therefore, those six companies have been selected. Because Winkler Partners and Good food were the seconds in line with the highest global score, and because they are the third and second best in the worker category respectively they are the 2 other companies I have selected. However, I learned after making this selection that Ecolohas Technology will not receive the B Corp certification this year. Therefore, I decided to select another company instead. The logical 30. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(40) choice would have been to interview Asher International Eco-Health Enterprises Inc. Indeed, it had the next highest global score and the second highest score in community. However, my connections at B Lab Taiwan informed me it would be difficult to obtain an interview with them. I have instead selected Hex Safety, whom had average score in all categories. Thanks for the great help of the Vice- Chairman of B Lab Taiwan, Kenny Chang, I was able to obtain an interview with the 7 first companies selected and Hex as the eighth. The final list is:. 政治大 Partners, Good Food and Hex Safety. Here is some information on each company 立. Jia-Wei CPAs, Greenvines, DA.AI Technology, DOMI, Ming Yung Enterprise. Winkler. (bcorporations.net):. ‧ 國. 學. Industry. Taipei. Legal. New Taipei. Restaurant. Nat. Social Enterprise. Services. No. Services. Yes. y. Good Food. Location. Product. Yes. Services. Yes. Services. No. Product. No. Installation. Services. Yes. Contractors & Builders. Product. No. Taipei. Apparel Footwear & accessories. Ming Yung Enterprise. New Taipei. Restaurant. Jia Wei CPAs. New Taipei. Greenvines. Taipei. DOMI. Taipei. Hex Safety. Taipei. io. DA.AI Technology. Accounting Services. er. Winkler Partners. S/P. ‧. Name. sit. Table 3: Selected Companies Basic Information. n. a l Growers v i n C h Energy GenerationUand Renewable engchi. Across the 8 companies interviewed there is 7 different type of industry, 62.5% of service oriented companies and 37.5% product oriented companies. We can notice that the industry classification found on the B Corporations websites isn’t perfect. For instance, the industry growers for Greenvines which also sells shampoo and other type of body care products, and moreover some companies combine services and products in their customers offering. However, we can argue that this repartition shows that the interview sample selected is composed of. 31. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(41) heterogenic companies. Moreover, going back to our discussion on the relations between B Corps, CSR and Social Enterprise, in this sample we have 50% of which are social enterprise and 50% whom are not. Which means that the results are not biased because all companies are too similar.. 3.2. The Interviews and the Interview Guide In this section, I will explain the interview guide that I have constructed and used for the. 政治大. interviews (meaning which questions). I will also explain how the interviews were conducted.. 立. The interview guide is in Appendix 1, it is composed of 5 sections and 33 questions in total.. ‧ 國. 學. First of all, I chose to conduct semi-structured interviews. This means that I didn’t follow every. ‧. question in order and I didn’t ask all of them for each interview. Depending on the interview and the company interviewed some subject were covered. However, in order to have basic. y. Nat. io. sit. answers on all the questions of the interview guide; another version of this questionnaire was. er. sent to the companies before our meetings, where they answered to 33 questions on the same. al. n. v i n topic but this time close-ended. This is in Appendix 2. C hversion of the questionnaire engchi U 3.2.1. General information about conducting the interviews. Seven interviews were conducted for eight companies. For Good Food and Ming Yung Enterprise, only one interview was conducted for both because the CEO of the first is the Chairman of the second. The interviewees were from different department in the companies. For instance, I have met with CEOs but also Public Relation managers and Human Resources managers... The common point between the interviewees were that they knew and were involved in the B Corp process in their respective companies. Having a first questionnaire to fill-in by the companies, followed with a semi-structured interview where I would focus only 32. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(42) on interesting subjects, had for objective to reduce the interview time, and fit in the busy schedule of the people interviewed. The length of the interview varied between 46min for DOMI to 1h42 for Winkler Partner and the mean length was 1h15 minutes. As I said, after informing the interviewees on their right to confidentiality, asking their permission to record the interview and explaining the process of this one, the interview is composed of 5 sections according to the interview guide. Four of those sections are based on. 政治大 we recall the four categories of the EVP (work environment, work content, benefit and 立. the work of Botha, Bussin and Swardt, 2011 and their Employer Value Proposition (EVP). As. ‧ 國. 學. career development and remuneration) are here one section each of the interview, with 6 questions each. It was important to have the same number of questions not to bias the results.. ‧. Indeed, if they were only 3 questions for the environment and 12 for remuneration the. sit. y. Nat. interviewee would obviously talk more about the remuneration. The 5th section is actually the. io. er. first section during the interview, it is composed of 9 questions. Those questions are here to first put the interviewee at ease. Second, learn more on the company transition to a B Corp certified,. al. n. v i n C hand standard, and how their use of the B Corp community e n g c h i U well they attract, retain and engage. talent. The third use of this first section is also to define the rest of the interview. Indeed, the first question asks the interviewee what the company believes is the most important to employees: work environment, work content, benefits and career development or remuneration. According to their answer we would only focus on certain of the 4 sections and talk about the others according to where the interview leads us.. 3.2.2. More in Depth: Choice of question In order to choose which questions to ask I have used the B impact assessment that all the companies are required to fill. Indeed, this gives a good idea of what matters to B Corp and is 33. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.

(43) a good benchmark All the companies have had to answer those questions to get certified. I have also used the research of Becker, 2011 which shows if you are leading a socially responsible and sustainable human resource function. (Becker, 2011) First section: General questions The goal is to understand the situation of each company and try to define important matters to focus on the rest of the interview.. 政治大. Question 1: Which of those 4 categories does the company think are the most important for its employees?. Work environment (which includes the value, culture, the quality of colleagues, managers. ‧ 國. 學. -. 立. and leadership). Work content (challenging work, work-life balance, creativity, decision making). -. Benefits and career development (training, healthcare, non-financial reward). -. Remuneration and ownership (level of remuneration, type such as salary or stock option,. ‧. -. y. Nat. er. io. al. sit. ownership of company, fair and equal pay…. v. n. Question 2: Since you became a B Corp company have you tried to improve any of those 4 categories? If yes, which one(s) If answered Yes to Question 2. Ch. engchi. i n U. 2a. For which reasons did you choose to improve these (those) category(ies)? 2b. Did you use B Corp tools such as benchmarking and review report from B impact assessment to help you improve? As explained, the goal of the first question is to define the rest of the interview according to their answer. Here I ask the company’s point of view on what is best for their employees, because, even though all employees might have a different point of view, it is the company opinion that matters because they will choose their process, what to change according to what. 34. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMBA.001.2018.F08.