Building Bridges: Social Capital, Human Rights, and Community Engagement in Benefit Corporations

This thesis explores the significance of social capital, human rights, and community engagement within the framework of Italian Benefit Corporations. It will try to answer to the question "What are the common benefit purposes related to Social Capital that Benefit Corporations adopt in Italy?". An initial literature review will trace the evolution of corporate purpose from a focus solely on shareholder profit maximization to the broader stakeholder perspective. It will explores how modern firms increasingly embrace a purpose-driven approach, recognizing that producing economic value alone is not enough. Nowadays, not only internal matters must be considered, but also external ones are of paramount importance. This will donate a new meaning to how organization can implement and conduct their operations, promoting the well-being of society. The empirical part will shed a light on how external stakeholder are the ones towards whom corporations try to do good, creating more benefits and a positive impact, transforming the society. The analysis is conducted using the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) materiality framework and makes use of a comprehensive sample of 3,197 bylaws from Italian Benefit Corporations to extract common benefit purposes and assess their alignment with social capital objectives. Findings from this research highlight how human rights and community engagement are central to the common benefit purposes, providing valuable insights social responsibility and sustainability.