• Benefit Corporation
• Comparative Law
• CSR
• Società Benefit
• Société Mission

This dissertation is focused on the analysis of new business models, with the objective to carry out economic activities by pursuing also social and environmental purposes.
First of all, the attention is placed on corporate social responsibility (CSR) underlining the interdependence between business and society. This overview is followed by the analysis of the main limits of CSR, focusing on the necessity for new legal business models. In fact in recent years, businesses attentive to the environmental and social impact developed, but they were constrained by an outdated legal framework. Therefore, Benefit Corporations emerged in 2010 as hybrid entity obligated to pursue both a profit and a social purpose, giving them an equal importance. This American legal model has been rapidly imported in different countries with adjustments to the relative legal systems.
More specifically, the research is oriented to the analysis of the French Société à mission and the Italian Società Benefit. Similarities and divergences will be defined, by focusing on the principal aspects: purposes, directors’ standards of conduct, annual reports, third party standards as well as supervisory activities.

This dissertation is focused on the analysis of new business models, with the objective to carry out economic activities by pursuing also social and environmental purposes. First of all, the attention is placed on corporate social responsibility (CSR) underlining the interdependence between business and society. This overview is followed by the analysis of the main limits of CSR, focusing on the necessity for new legal business models. In fact in recent years, businesses attentive to the environmental and social impact developed, but they were constrained by an outdated legal framework. Therefore, Benefit Corporations emerged in 2010 as hybrid entity obligated to pursue both a profit and a social purpose, giving them an equal importance. This American legal model has been rapidly imported in different countries with adjustments to the relative legal systems. More specifically, the research is oriented to the analysis of the French Société à mission and the Italian Società Benefit. Similarities and divergences will be defined, by focusing on the principal aspects: purposes, directors’ standards of conduct, annual reports, third party standards as well as supervisory activities.