Faculty Awarded Bentley-Gallup Force for Good Grants
Business can be a powerful force for positive social change. But are businesses doing enough to live up to that potential and make the world a better place? That’s the central question posed by the Bentley-Gallup Force for Good survey, a multiyear study that measures Americans’ perceptions of business as a “force for good” in addressing large-scale environmental and socioeconomic challenges, such as climate change, income inequality and access to high-quality education and healthcare.
Results from the inaugural survey, announced in October, found that most Americans (55%) believe business has a positive impact on people’s lives and that younger workers (ages 18-29) in particular expect companies to acknowledge responsibility for social, economic and environmental outcomes. But the official Force for Good survey findings are just the tip of the analytical iceberg. As Bentley Provost Paul Tesluk explains, “Our partnership with Gallup has allowed us to gather a robust and unique data set that can be used by Bentley researchers to further explore the relationship between business and society.”
In December, Tesluk and Vice President for Marketing and Communications Chris Joyce encouraged faculty to do just that by establishing the Bentley Force for Good Faculty Grants, which offers funding of up to $5,000 each for research and classroom projects that incorporate Bentley-Gallup survey data. Two projects, detailed below, successfully secured grant awards; a second round of funding is now available, with proposals due May 15.
“As an academic community that believes in the power of business to have a positive impact on society, it’s important that we continue to serve as thought-leaders in this area,” says Tesluk. “We feel our Bentley Force for Good Faculty Grants will help in this regard, and we’re pleased to make funding available to support such efforts.”
Project: “Political Ideology and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)”
Researchers: Marketing professors Lan Xia (pictured left, top) and Shelle Santana (left, bottom)
Objective: “The political divide has been trickling down to almost every aspect of our lives. While there is some research suggesting conservatives care less about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), there hasn’t been much systematic research. Our research fills this void, contributing to a deeper understanding of the moral roots of political ideology (moral expansiveness) and offering a more nuanced understanding of how consumers with different political ideologies respond differently to CSR in different domains.
Results of the Bentley-Gallup survey showed significant differences in the perceived importance of various business roles between Democrats and Republicans. Many of these roles fall in the context of CSR. In this research, we aim to a) identify and seek an explanation of these differences, b) examine systematic CSR characteristics that elicit positive or negative perceptions from people of different political ideologies and c) identify interventions that can potentially bridge these differences and enhance CSR effectiveness.”
Project: “Development and Validation of the Conscious Marketing Construct”
Researcher: Marketing professor Poh-Lin Yeoh
Objective: “According to the Bentley-Gallup Force for Good report, most Americans believe that businesses have a positive impact on people’s lives. Similarly, marketing practitioners and consumers have developed the belief that companies can do good or even better by doing good things; this intriguing proposition echoes the concept of conscious capitalism, a philosophy that aligns and combines the power of capitalism with the global human consciousness movement.
Conscious marketing is the manifestation of conscious capitalism involving integrated marketing strategies and tactics that can shape consumer perceptions of a business entity. Yet, despite its increasing popularity, it is still difficult to find a precise and commonly accepted definition for conscious marketing. The purpose of this research is to fill the void in the marketing literature by developing and validating a scale for conscious marketing which will further assist both academicians and practitioners in their understanding regarding the nature of conscious marketing, as well as its drivers and consequences.”