Hidden Badge of Honor: How Contextual Distinctiveness Affects Category Promotion among Certified B Corporations

TLDR

Organizations often pursue category membership yet choose not to promote it. The study develops a theoretical model distinguishing basic and subordinate categories and tests whether a subordinate category’s contextual distinctiveness and peer‑group size increase promotion. Using a proprietary web‑based toolset, the authors collected textual and graphical data on B‑Corporation certification promotion and supplemented the analysis with executive interviews. Results overturn prior assumptions about promotional forbearance and reveal how contextual distinctiveness and intra‑category variation drive promotion decisions.

Abstract

Why would an organization pursue membership in an organizational category, yet forego opportunities to subsequently promote that membership? Drawing on prior research, we develop a theoretical model that distinguishes between basic and subordinate categories and highlights how organizations may differ in their promotion of the same subordinate category. We hypothesize that a subordinate category's contextual distinctiveness within different basic categories increases promotion, and that these effects are amplified in relatively larger subordinate category peer groups. To test our hypotheses, we developed a proprietary web-based software toolset and gathered textual and graphical data regarding B Corporations' web-based promotion of their certification. We supplemented our statistical analysis with interviews of Certified B Corporation entrepreneurs and executives. Our findings challenge prior assumptions about the causes of promotional forbearance, while extending our understanding of category distinctiveness within contexts as well as sources of intra-category variation.