Department of Management associate professors Jeff Lingwall and Susan Park had their article “Building Jerusalem: Commercial Law and Ethics of the Benefit Corporation,” published in the Kentucky Law Journal.
Lingwall describes benefit corporations as “for-profit businesses legally structured to do good while seeking shareholder returns.” In the past, “some have criticized the existence of these corporations as a distraction from the corporate social responsibility efforts of traditional for-profit corporations, while others have critiqued the accountability of benefit corporations to their social missions.”
In response, Park and Lingwall argue that these critiques “draw on stewardship theory and norms enforcement principles from international law and advocate for the continued existence of benefit corporations as unique entities that enable socially responsible business and investment opportunities.”