Growth for Good: How Past Experiences Motivate Executives to Join Double Bottom Line Organizations in the Indian Construction Industry

Abstract

Researcher Anthony Bisconti defines the unorthodox companies called double bottom line (DBL) organizations as businesses which do good for society while earning profit (Bisconti, 2009). Since 2001, the amount of these organizations has started to increase in the Indian construction industry. By thematically analyzing the narratives of eight executives working in Indian construction DBL organizations, I seek to understand the reason for this growth. Specifically, this study looks at important events in an executive’s life in order to understand how experiences motivate executives to join Indian DBL organizations within the construction industry. Through interviews with eight executives working in this sector, I collected multiple narratives detailing how past experiences influenced the decision to work with the double bottom line. With a thematic analysis, I drew connections between common themes arising from the narratives in order to find the types of experiences which functioned as motivators to join a DBL organization. This paper was written with the initial assumption that experiences and events relating to poverty would make people more prone to joining a DBL organization. Through the research process, however, it was instead revealed that experiences based off a need to self actualize - defined as the desire to use one’s skills for social impact rather than profit- catalyzed the desire to work with a DBL organization. Therefore, this study concludes that experiences related to doing good for society engender the motivation to join a DBL organization. This research indicates that certain experiences do, in fact, play a role in motivating executives to join DBL organizations. Therefore, it can be used in order to understand how to best augment the growth of DBL organizations in the Indian construction industry.