How Bordeaux Became Bordeaux: Persistence and Privilege

About the seminar topic

We examine how B Corporation certification affects customer satisfaction through both symbolic and substantive mechanisms, addressing longstanding debates about certification effectiveness on firms and research on corporate social responsibility and environment, social and governance. Using a multi-method approach combining archival analysis (regression discontinuity) of a matched sample of 940 firms and controlled laboratory experiments, we find that B Corp certification significantly enhances customer ratings through improved employee and customer satisfaction. Our archival analysis reveals that certified B Corps achieve 16-22% higher customer ratings compared to conventional firms. 

Critically, firms with stated social missions but lacking formal certification (B Corp-like firms) demonstrate weaker effects, underscoring the value of third-party verification and ongoing monitoring. Controlled experiments using identical products show that B Corp certification creates perceptual enhancement effects, with participants rating the same ice cream significantly higher when believing it originated from certified B Corps, particularly in family business contexts where ethical considerations are salient. These findings demonstrate that effective certification functions through dual pathways: substantive improvements in organisational practices that enhance stakeholder experiences and symbolic signalling that activates values-based perceptual processes. Our research bridges signalling and institutional theories by showing that certification’s value emerges from coupling credible external signals with authentic internal transformation.

Speaker bio

Walter (Woody) Powell is Jacks Family Professor of Education (and) Professor of Sociology, Organisational Behaviour Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He is also an External Faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute.  He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a foreign member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, The British Academy and a fellow of the Academy of Management and has honorary degrees from Uppsala University, Copenhagen Business School and the Helsinki School of Economics. He recently served as the Sarah Miller McCune Interim Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and is presently Co-President of the Social Science Research Council. His recent books include The Emergence of Organizations and Markets, with John F. Padgett (Princeton University Press) and The Nonprofit Sector, with Patricia Bromley (Stanford University Press). He is currently writing a book with Grégoire Croidieu, How Bordeaux Became Bordeaux, an historical ethnography of the 19th century decline of the aristocracy and the rise of mercantile and financial classes in the French wine world.

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No registration required. If you have any questions about this seminar, please email Luke Slater.