The goal of the project is to develop an understanding of Benefit Corporations, a new corporate form, and how they compare to standard for-profit corporations. For the final project, you will randomly choose a Benefit Corporation in class, which you will compare to your midterm firm (if you prefer to receive a new midterm firm, let me know by April 9th). You will compare the Benefit Corporation’s reporting on B Lab to your midterm firm’s reporting. In a 3-4 page, single-spaced paper, you should provide the following analyses:
Part I. Quality of Information (40 points)
Accuracy – Do you feel the information in both reports is reliable? Which report is more reliable? Provide 2 specific differences between the B Corp and your midterm firm.
Comprehensiveness – Does each firm cover all relevant information in their reporting? Which report is more comprehensive? Provide 2 specific differences between the B Corp and your midterm firm.
Detail & Depth of assessments – Does each firm provide a deep level of information regarding each area of reporting? Which report provides more detail? Provide 2 specific differences between the B Corp and your midterm firm.
Part II. Objectives and Constraints (40 points)
Identify each company’s objectives and constraints. Determine which firm does a better job of meeting its objectives and living by its constraints. Whenever possible, rely upon evidence from the CSR report of the BLab website to support your arguments. In order to judge the B corporation’s behavior, you are limited to the information found in the corporations’ B Lab reports found here: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/
Part III. Socially Responsible Investing (20 points)
If you were picking stocks for your SRI fund and could only invest in one of these firms, which would you pick and why?
Before starting this project, you should watch the following short video on Benefit Corporations:
Grading. Your paper grade will be based upon the thoughtfulness and persuasiveness of your analyses, your understanding of course concepts, and the quality of your writing. The paper should be approximately 3-4 pages single-spaced and 12 point font (this does not include Endnotes, Footnotes or a Reference List).
Presentations will be given in class (2 minutes in length) and informal (no slides). They will be a chance for you to provide the highlights of your analyses.
The paper, citation contract, and presentation are due on April 23, 2024 at 9am. Your paper and citation contract will be submitted through Canvas and must be received by 9am or else I will deduct 10 pts (plus an additional 10 pts for each 24-hr. period after the start of class).
Academic Integrity. This course is designated as a writing intensive class within the RBS curriculum and is designed to assess student writing ability. You are not allowed to use the assistance of AI (Chatgpt, Bard, Quillbot, etc.) to write any part of your paper. If you use AI to write any part of your paper, you will receive a 0 on the Final Project.
Citations. You will only use these sources for your paper:
Our course materials (properly cited)
Benefit Corporation reporting on the B Lab website: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/
Your midterm firm’s CSR Report
You must include citations for course materials, direct quotes, paraphrased information, and facts. I don’t care what method of citations you use so long as I can find the exact page or website where you found the information. I want the full website address.
If ANY sentence in your paper includes ANY facts about the company (i.e., something that your grandmother doesn’t know), you MUST have a citation at the end of that sentence. I don’t mind if every sentence has a citation.
If you take more than 3 words in a row from a source, you must include quotation marks and a citation. You may check your papers for plagiarism using our submission link (Turnitin). If you have a violation, you can fix it and upload a new version of your paper. Please note, Turnitin doesn’t catch everything, so I use it alongside other searches.
Source 1: https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/company/cabot-creamery-co-operative/
Source 2: https://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c08636600.pdf
ONLY USE THESE TWO SOURCES PLEASE. NO PLAGIARISM OR AI.