The reason why business exists is to make the world better. This purpose, making the world better, can be more often honored in the breach than the observance. (I am using the common meaning of the phrase — doing something less than it should — not whatever Shakespeare is supposed to have meant.) That said, companies should be aiming to make the world better or why would anyone give them the benefits, e.g., limited liability, that they receive? Making pension funds richer — as long as this is genuinely happening — is a positive benefit but in an ideal world business can do much more. Business can be creating social impact. A colleague of mine at UGA, Sundar Bharadwaj, and his colleague at Emory, Omar Rodiguez Vila have a book, Good Growth, detailing how social impact can be a winning commercial strategy as well as making the work better.
Creating Social Impact While Making Money
… social impact is significant, positive change to communities or the environment resulting from a brand’s or business’s actions.
Vila and Bharadwaj, 2025, page 2
Social impact can be created in many ways. In some businesses it has been at the core of the business since its inception. For others, social impact became part of the brand later. It may be easier to integrate social impact earlier in the business model, but it is never too late as long as you commit to a long-term strategy.
What is crucial for a business is that the social impact fits with the business model. You can’t just give away all your revenue to good causes and not be able to pay to keep the lights on. Charity is great but it doesn’t tend to last. You need a business case, meaning that creating social impact is integrated into the commercial actions of the company, to be assured you are creating social impact that will last.
If the creation of societal benefits is not accompanied by a robust business case like any other investment for the brand, it may receive initial support but is unlikely to have a lasting effect.
Vila and Bharadwaj, 2025, page 69
Fitting The Brand With The Cause
There are likely an infinite number of good things that can be done in the world. As such, a major question becomes: ‘Is this something that we should do?’ An answer is given in the book after the authors review the marketing literature. They suggest brand fit is really important.
Brand fit is when managers, consumers, employees etc… should be able to understand why this social impact was pursued. They are many ways to get to brand fit. Some are obvious — a bank working on financial literacy — but other approaches can be more circuitous. The authors share how Coke decided to help polar bears because the bears regularly featured in Coke’s advertising. Coke helping polar bears does not make sense if you don’t know the advertising — bears don’t drink Coke except in advertising. So, if you don’t know the advertising it would seem strange, opportunistic, and not very genuine. But if you know the advertising, the brand fit is there for all to see. You must think about brand fit, but you don’t need to be so literal as to say only BRITA (water filters) can adopt water restoration projects.
Brands, Criticism, And Social Impact
Social impact can drive successful brands, e.g., Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s. Yet, competing on social impact isn’t without risk. Managers should assume that there will be criticism. Be ready and think through what problems people might have. Talk to employees, the community, not-for-profits. If people don’t see the fit, or there are excessive concerns about hypocrisy, examine what can be done to improve the fit and reassure that the aim for social impact is genuine. Planning for criticism in advance can prevent the awkward situation where managers believe they are doing a positive thing but suddenly find out that no one believes them. Obviously, if no one believes your social impact strategy is actually making any impact then this doesn’t help the brand much.
Consistency is also critically important to avoid cynicism and backlash. If you are known for a particular policy — e.g., Target, a major US general merchandiser, was until 2025 known for its embrace of inclusion — it can be especially hard on the brand if you suddenly abandon that approach. To be honest, this seems like a really obvious point. Weird that Target’s executives, who are paid a ridiculous amount of money to lead a consumer facing brand, didn’t think of it really.
Creating social impact, and using that as part of your brand, is a risk. The authors argue it is more like investing in innovation. The payoff can be massive, but you have to be willing to accept that there is a reasonable chance of failure. Social impact strategies can be high risk/high reward.
Creating social impact can pay off the world and the brand. Not saying it always will, but if it does that is wonderful.
For more on stakeholder business see Benefiting Owners And Much More, Win-Wins Are Good For Stakeholders, Conscious Capitalism As Stakeholder Management, Managing For Stakeholders, Stakeholder Management As A Threat
Read: Omar Rodriguez Vila, Sundar Bharadwaj (2025) Good Growth: How Brands Win with Social Impact, Routledge
