The consequences of financial leverage: Certified B Corporations’ advantages compared to common commercial firms
dc.contributor.author | Paeleman, I | |
dc.contributor.author | Guenster, N | |
dc.contributor.author | Vanacker, T | |
dc.contributor.author | Siqueira, ACO | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2023-02-09T10:20:04Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2023-02-14 | |
dc.date.updated | 2023-02-08T20:39:44Z | |
dc.description.abstract | Firms usually need to attract debt to form and grow, but increasing financial leverage also entails increased risks and costs for stakeholders, such as customers and employees. Accordingly, past research suggests that for common commercial firms (CCFs), which prioritize profits, higher leverage leads to lower sales growth and higher employment costs. However, Certified B Corporations (CBCs) distinguish themselves by having a credible prosocial mission and, therefore, might be better insulated against the adverse effects of higher leverage. Using a European multi-country matched sample of 136 CBCs and 136 CCFs, we find that the negative relationship between leverage and sales growth and the positive relationship between leverage and employment costs are weaker for CBCs than CCFs. Taken together, due to their certified pro-social mission, CBCs enjoy an advantage in debt financing compared to CCFs. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Antwerp University Research Fund (BOF) | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Published online 14 February 2023 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05349-5 | |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | W0.023.19N | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/132446 | |
dc.identifier | ORCID: 0000-0001-5608-1944 (Vanacker, Tom) | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Springer | en_GB |
dc.rights | © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
dc.title | The consequences of financial leverage: Certified B Corporations’ advantages compared to common commercial firms | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2023-02-09T10:20:04Z | |
dc.description | This is the final version. Available on open access from Springer via the DOI in this record | en_GB |
dc.identifier.eissn | 1573-0697 | |
dc.identifier.journal | Journal of Business Ethics | en_GB |
dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | en_GB |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2023-01-29 | |
dcterms.dateSubmitted | 2021-06-25 | |
rioxxterms.version | VoR | en_GB |
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate | 2023-01-29 | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | en_GB |
refterms.dateFCD | 2023-02-09T10:16:45Z | |
refterms.versionFCD | AM | |
refterms.dateFOA | 2023-02-16T13:36:42Z | |
refterms.panel | C | en_GB |
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in
the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a
copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/