Enabling the mindset for purpose-driven innovation: Evidence from Italian benefit corporations

Purpose: The study aims to explore the enablers of the benefit mindset that guides purpose-driven innovation in Italian benefit corporations. Methodology: This research adopts an exploratory qualitative approach, employing thematic analysis to examine data collected from interviews with professionals in various roles within benefit corporations, as well as secondary sources. Findings: This study identifies seven enablers of the benefit mindset that orient purpose-driven innovation in benefit corporations: the institutionalization of the benefit identity, centrality of stakeholders, local embeddedness, integrated supply chain, multi-stakeholder responsibility, common good-oriented leadership, and mature competitive contexts. Purpose-driven innovation emerges from the combined interaction of these enablers within the firm’s identity, relationships, and governance. Managerial implications: Benefit corporations should institutionalize purpose within the corporate mindset to guide purpose-driven innovation, treating purpose as a driver of strategic intent that supports long-term decisions and orients toward the common good. Research limitations: The purposeful sampling strategy, the limited number of benefit corporations, and the Italian focus limit the generalizability of the findings while preserving their validity and practical relevance. Originality: By contributing to the debate on purpose-driven businesses, this study shows that innovation in benefit corporations is enabled not by purpose alone but by a distinctive benefit mindset shaped by seven mutually reinforcing enablers.