Too good to be true? A systematic literature review about the ambivalent consequences and managerial challenges of purpose implementation

Abstract

Corporate purpose has rapidly gained prominence in management literature and is considered a highly influential concept in business, promising to enable businesses' transformative power. While most existing studies highlight the positive outcomes of incorporating purpose into organizational frameworks, some research highlights negative consequences, too. By conducting a systematic literature review that evaluates 160 studies from 2005 to 2024, we synthesize findings on the outcomes of purpose implementation and how these manifest in positive and negative consequences across individual, organizational, and societal levels. We identify three critical managerial challenges— Purpose Clarity, Purpose Credibility, and Purpose Operationalization —as key drivers shaping these outcomes. Building on this, we introduce an analytical model that provides a conceptual foundation for theorizing purpose implementation. The model elucidates how the three challenges interact to produce ambivalent consequences across individual, organizational, and societal levels. Also, by theorizing the inherent ambiguity of the purpose concept as a defining conceptual characteristic, the study advances a more balanced and critical understanding of corporate purpose that also considers unintended consequences. We suggest future research avenues for theorizing the dynamics of purpose implementation, as well as managerial implications, to help avoid a biased and superficial discourse that risks reducing corporate purpose to a management fad.