Doing Good Better: Limitations of Firm-Led Social Impact Efforts and Solutions Moving Forward

There has been growing scholarly interest in the role and responsibility of firms in addressing societal problems. Prior work has shown that there can exist an economic case for firms’ pursuit of social objectives and that firms possess capabilities that make them better suited to address certain societal issues compared to other organizational forms. However, even though companies are increasingly tackling societal grand challenges, corporate involvement in addressing social problems does not necessarily achieve the desired social outcomes. Realities like tensions between stakeholders of different power or tradeoffs between the pursuit of financial and social objectives can lead to social-oriented efforts that are temporary or that are decoupled from on-the-ground impacts. This symposium takes the position that there is great potential for for-profit firms to further social goals. However, we also posit that there is still much to learn about how companies can do good better. We focus on firms operating in weak institutional contexts, which create problems of economic and human development while also making it more difficult for companies to address them. Through their presentations, our scholars characterize firm-level efforts to address social problems in low- and middle-income economies, theorize the mechanisms for why firms’ efforts do not necessarily achieve desired social outcomes, and ascertain strategies for the improvement of firms’ participation in creating better outcomes, from the perspectives of both managers and policymakers. Pathways to Progress: Product- and Operation-Level Integration of Social Objectives Presenter: Tobias Bünder; Hertie School of Governance Presenter: Nikolas Rathert; Tilburg U. Presenter: Johanna Mair; Hertie School of Governance Getting in the Set: The Counterintuitive Effects of Impact Investing in Global Microfinance Presenter: Tyler Wry; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Presenter: Eric Y.-F. Zhao; Indiana U., Bloomington Presenter: Jaeho Kim; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania How Electoral Contests Impact Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from India Presenter: Christiane Bode; Imperial College Business School Presenter: Aline Gatignon; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania How Firms can Bring Efficiency and Innovation in the Provision of Public Goods Presenter: Luis Ballesteros; Boston U. Questrom School of Business