New Legal Frameworks for Purpose-driven Organisations

3 August 2026 – As governments and businesses seek new ways to align economic success with long-term societal and environmental value, an increasing number of jurisdictions have introduced legal frameworks enabling companies to pursue both profit and public benefit. This report presents a comprehensive comparative legal analysis of these emerging dual-purpose companies, examining the legal principles, governance structures and accountability mechanisms that define this new category of company law. 

New Legal Frameworks for Purpose-driven Organisations: A Comparative Law Analysis of Dual-purpose Companies 

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About

Drawing on legislation and policy developments across North America, Europe, Latin America and Africa, the report identifies both the common features and the jurisdictional differences of these legal models. It develops a comparative legal framework for understanding their emergence and examines their implications for the future evolution of company law, including pathways towards international and European legal harmonisation, as well as for corporate governance and sustainable business. 

The context 

The purpose of the business corporation has become one of the defining questions of contemporary company law. While companies are increasingly expected to contribute to addressing pressing social and environmental challenges, policymakers also face growing geopolitical uncertainty, economic pressures and an evolving sustainability landscape. Against this backdrop, an increasing number of jurisdictions have sought to embed public purpose directly into company law by introducing legal models that combine profit-making with the pursuit of public benefit. 

These reforms reveal a remarkable degree of convergence. This report explores that evolution, arguing that benefit corporations, società benefit, sociétés à mission, sociedades de beneficio e interés común, and other comparable models should not be understood as isolated national innovations, but rather as expressions of a broader global transformation in company law and the emergence of a new category of business organisation. 

By developing a comparative legal framework for understanding these emerging legal forms, the report aims to support policymakers, legislators, business leaders, legal practitioners and academics in considering how company law can evolve to reconcile commercial success with long-term societal and environmental value creation. It also explores the broader implications of these developments for future legal reforms and for the international and European harmonisation of company law. 

Citing this report  

University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. (2026). New Legal Frameworks for Purpose-driven Organisations (Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership).