Editorial: Special Issue on Corporate Purpose

Although occasionally assigned an alternate label, the concept of corporate purpose has deep roots in management and strategy (Barnard 1938, Follett 1940, Drucker 1954, Selznick 1957). Today its discussion in the corporate world has become widespread, with leaders devoting considerable time and attention to its development, expression, and deep diffusion. Corporate purpose has also become an important topic in academic strategy research.

As a concept, corporate purpose is of course distinct from strategy and by no means a synonym. Strategy is an expression that integrates and coordinates actions, marshals resources, and orchestrates choices into complementary patterns that solve a problem, achieve a goal, or deliver positions of value or advantage (Quinn 1980, Porter 1996, Van den Steen 2017, Leiblein et al. 2018). Yet, the concept of purpose is quite broad in its reach (Besharov and Mitzinneck 2023), and its breadth overlaps conceptually with strategy. Corporate purpose is often understood as a company’s reason for being (Durand 2023, Rindova and Martins 2023), as an expression of the meaning of work (Gartenberg 2023), as a mechanism that motivates and directs actions (Henderson 2021, Gartenberg and Zenger 2022), as a vehicle to build trust among various stakeholders (Gulati and Wohlgezogen 2023, Henisz 2023), as a catalyst for systemic change (Besharov and Mitzinneck 2023), as an institutionalized ideal that guides strategic decision making and practices (Ocasio et al. 2023), or as a broad stakeholder-oriented objective that transcends shareholder interests (Kaplan 2023). All these definitions connect in important ways to strategy.

In light of the functional proximity of strategy and corporate purpose, Strategy Science is pleased to publish a special issue on corporate purpose, edited by Matthew Kraatz, William Ocasio, and David Chandler. The issue features contributions from a distinguished set of scholars and an insightful introductory essay from the editors, entitled “Making Sense of Corporate Purpose” (Ocasio et al. 2023). Their title describes the issue’s contribution—a collection of papers that help readers make sense of corporate purpose. Their contributions address the topic from a wide range of theoretical and disciplinary perspectives and do so with varying forms of enthusiasm and occasional pessimism. You will enjoy the read and in doing so garner a deeper understanding of this concept so central to the field of strategy.

The papers in the Corporate Purpose Special Issue include the following:

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