(Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 2023-05-29) Beaumont Frañowsky, Juan Martín; Vargas Winstanley, Silvana Eugenia
This research aims to describe the business models of purpose-driven companies operating in Latin America in the light of the construct of sustainable business models and using B Corps that operate in the region as case study. This type of company, certified by the U.S. based B Lab that works with regional partners such as Sistema B, combines the social logic (for-purpose) with the economic logic (for-profit) typical of hybrid organizations and, in this sense, contributes to the study of innovations in business models and to the reflection on the value that companies create for society. The research uses the open database on B Corps to provide context for understanding the phenomenon, as well as 21 forms of the same number of B Corps that were used for their certification, composing a multiple case study. It is concluded that this type of companies present elements of correspondence with some key sustainability dimensions identified in the literature review, and that their innovations are the result of combining various patterns of sustainable business models, making changes in the three value functions to respond to the tensions generated by the application of the double logic of hybrid organizations. Finally, it is inferred that the value created by them is multidimensional around economic, social and environmental dimensions, with predominantly socioeconomic and mainly economic forms of value creation due to the weight that companies that provide services to other companies have in the study population.
