Corporate Purpose and Financial Performance

Claudine  Gartenberg; Andrea  Prat; George  Serafeim

Article | Organization Science | January–February 2019

Corporate Purpose and Financial Performance

by Claudine Gartenberg, Andrea Prat and George Serafeim

Abstract

We construct a measure of corporate purpose within a sample of U.S. companies based on approximately 500,000 survey responses of worker perceptions about their employers. We find that this measure of purpose is not related to financial performance. However, high purpose firms come in two forms: firms that are characterized by high camaraderie between workers and firms that are characterized by high clarity from management. We document that firms exhibiting both high purpose and clarity have systematically higher future accounting and stock market performance, even after controlling for current performance, and that this relation is driven by the perceptions of middle management and professional staff rather than senior executives, hourly, or commissioned workers. Taken together, these results suggest that firms with employees that maintain strong beliefs in the meaning of their work experience better performance.

Keywords: corporate purpose; purpose; employee motivation; Belief systems; Corporate performance; human capital; Middle management; culture; corporate culture; Meaning; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Culture; Employees; Perception; Values and Beliefs; Performance Effectiveness;

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Gartenberg, Claudine, Andrea Prat, and George Serafeim. "Corporate Purpose and Financial Performance." Organization Science 30, no. 1 (January–February 2019): 1–18.

Aperture Investors is a startup investment firm that seeks to disrupt the asset management industry through competitive differentiation by charging investors primarily when its portfolio managers outperform the marketplace. Headed by Wall Street veteran Peter Kraus and backed with substantial and patient seed capital, Aperture seeks to attract both star portfolio managers and assets from mutual funds and hedge funds. Kraus believes that his innovative business model addresses the current dysfunctional fee and incentive structures in the industry, which have led to long-term market underperformance, and that Aperture will address the reasons that are motivating investors to shift to cheaper, passively-managed index and exchange-traded funds.

Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | March 2016 (Revised April 2019)

ESG Metrics: Reshaping Capitalism?

George Serafeim and Jody Grewal

In the past twenty-five years, the world had seen an exponential growth in the number of companies reporting environmental, social and governance (ESG) data. Investor interest in ESG data also grew rapidly. A growing belief that increasing levels of social inequality and natural environment degradation were pressing problems that the capitalist system was failing to resolve had led many stakeholders to advocate for changes in measurement and corporate reporting as a potentially powerful “lever” that could move the discussion from “Reimagining” to “Reshaping” Capitalism. Some suggested that increased transparency could change corporate behavior, increase corporate accountability and lead to better outcomes for employees, customers, the environment and local communities. Others suggested that ESG data were value relevant from an investor standpoint and that firms “doing good would do well.” According to this view, investors that used ESG data would be able to make better investment decisions and widespread disclosure of such data would improve market efficiency. However, some commentators doubted the sincerity of company ESG disclosures and suggested that firms that did good were less competitive, and therefore earned lower returns for their shareholders. As the business community entered the second half of the second decade of the twenty first century, whether the widespread adoption of ESG metrics would happen -- and whether, if it did, it would lead to systematic change -- was very much an open question.

Keywords: Capitalism; sustainability; accountability; corporate social responsibility; Responsibilities to Society; environment; social impact investment; ESG; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Environmental Sustainability; Measurement and Metrics; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Corporate Accountability; Accounting; Economic Systems;

Citation:

Serafeim, George, and Jody Grewal. "ESG Metrics: Reshaping Capitalism?" Harvard Business School Technical Note 116-037, March 2016. (Revised April 2019.) View Details

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