ABSTRACT
Benefit Corporations and B Corps are good examples of new approaches to incorporating businesses, still within the traditional market economy, with purpose embedded into their founding principles. Benefit corporations, including the rapid growth of the B Corp movement, show promise as a transitionary organizing model for for-profit enterprises seeking to ensure that profit maximization does not take precedence over social and ecological impacts. While there is a growing interest in B Corps from a startup perspective, and the B Lab Foundation is trying to allow for early-stage startups to join the club, author's research with colleagues suggests that the timing of when a founder commits to his or her purpose is important and that it is possible committing early can be detrimental to the firm and their aspired future impact. Benefit Associations, usually nonprofit, are more aligned with what the PCE paradigm espouses in the book and provide a link between commons thinking and platform cooperatives.
