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From organic farming to microbreweries, fair trade, and other sustainability-oriented movements, innovators are increasingly turning to market alternatives that explicitly prioritize social responsibility. But as these movements grow, they often face a catch-22: To maximize impact, they want to expand and include as many incumbent organizations in their movement as possible — but to remain authentic to their core values and avoid becoming coopted and diluted, it’s often necessary to exclude larger incumbents. In this article, the authors present new research on the B Corp Movement’s approach to inform strategies that can help leaders in any industry strike a balance between these competing demands and navigate the paradoxical imperatives to expand while staying true to their mission.
When it comes to sustainability, many business leaders are increasingly recognizing that incremental change just won’t cut it. Instead, innovators around the world have begun attempting to create organizations and offer products built on entirely new value systems, explicitly prioritizing social responsibility over profits. Researchers call these movements market alternatives: products and organizational structures such as microbreweries, organic farms, fair-trade certified distributors, low-power radio stations, and other initiatives that are intentionally socially motivated.