Multiple paths for being recognized as a high impact firm in the banking sector.

Abstract

There is a call for firms in general and banks in particular to contribute to the generation of positive impacts (social, economic and environmental), paired with an increasing relevance for banks to communicate to their stakeholders the positive contributions they generate and their adherence to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) principles, for example, through recognized certifications of their positive impact generation. Subsequently, in order to contribute to knowledge of banks’ choices for generating a positive impact, the research question driving this research is: “What are the dimensions of impact (community, governance, workers, environment and customers) and/or their combinations and the degree of focus on each one which are necessary or sufficient for banks to achieve (or not) recognition of their high impact generation?” To answer this question, a sample of bank entities (n = 38) in the B Corp database is analyzed with fsQCA. Results show six combinations of focus on different impact dimensions that are sufficient for banks to achieve a high impact score, with the focus on the corporate governance dimension being the most prevalent among them. In addition, four combinations of scarce focus on different impact dimensions were sufficient for not achieving a high impact score, with the customers dimension being the most prevalent among them.