Following milestones such as the Business Roundtable and the Davos Manifesto, corporate purpose moved beyond rhetoric and emerged as a viable business orientation. In this context, corporate governance becomes crucial for guiding and deploying purpose within organizations. Yet the literature lacks an integrated explanation linking both concepts. This paper aims to examine how prior research links corporate purpose and corporate governance, and to propose–drawing on institutional theories–a multilevel framework that explains their relationship.
A systematic review of the literature was conducted, following the PRISMA protocol, to select and analyze 34 articles identified in Scopus and Web of Science.
The study shows a multilevel relationship between purpose and corporate governance. At the macro level, institutional systems condition the adoption of purpose; at the meso level, organizational attributes filter pressures; and at the micro level, leaders’ agency allows purpose to be incorporated into decisions to manage tensions.
A multilevel conceptual framework is proposed that integrates purpose and governance from an institutional perspective, offering a common language to connect the institutional context, organizational attributes and individual agency. Likewise, a typology of organizations is developed that, based on the combination of institutional logics at the national, organizational and individual levels, allows for the identification of tensions that emerge in the implementation of purpose.
