Doctoral defence: Thilo Matthias POLLMEIER

The Doctoral School in Economics, Finance and Management (DSEFM) is pleased to invite you to Thilo Matthias POLLMEIER‘s doctoral defence on 19 January 2025 at 09.30.

Voluntary Sustainability Certifications as Institutional Devices: Signaling, Diffusion, and Rhetorical Construction Across Levels of Analysis

Thesis by: Thilo Matthias POLLMEIER

Members of the defense committee

• Prof. Dr. Gilbert FRIDGEN, University of Luxembourg, Chairman
• Prof. Dr. Prof. Christian FISCH, University of Luxembourg, Supervisor
• Prof. Dr. Katrin HUSSINGER, University of Luxembourg, Member
• Prof. Dr. Silvio VISMARA, University of Bergamo, Italy, Member
• Prof. Dr. Tom VANACKER, Ghent University, Belgium, Member

Abstract

This dissertation investigates voluntary sustainability certifications as institutional devices that structure organizational legitimacy, with B Corp certification serving as the focal case. Across four studies, this dissertation develops a multi-level perspective on how certifications (i) are conceptualized through a systematic review of existing research, (ii) function as signals that influence investment prospects, (iii) diffuse via configurations of normative pressures, and (iv) recalibrate organizational rhetoric. The first study consolidates a fragmented field through a systematic review of 62 peer-reviewed articles, identifying core theoretical frameworks, antecedents, outcomes, and certification cycles. The second study, situated at the venture level, demonstrates that B Corp certification functions as a credible but conditional signal in entrepreneurial finance, facilitating venture funding under specific configurations of signal strength and investor type.

The third study shifts to the national field level by disaggregating normative pressures into regulatory, informational, and environmental drivers. Evidence from a 92-country panel (2007–2023) shows that these pressures each promote diffusion, though their effects diverge under conditions of environmental turbulence. The fourth study returns to the organizational level, conceptualizing certification, recertification, and decertification as proactive kairotic events that recalibrate rhetoric. Combining semantic text embeddings with interaction-weighted event studies on more than 40,000 firm–years, it identifies rhetorical dynamics of buildup, maintenance, and dissociation across certification milestones. Collectively, the dissertation contributes to signaling theory by examining sustainability certifications as signals in entrepreneurial finance, refines institutional theory by disaggregating normative pressures, and connects event system theory with rhetorical institutionalism to explain how proactive events shape rhetorical agency. Methodologically, the dissertation integrates systematic review methods, quantitative panel designs, and artificial intelligence–based text analysis. By theorizing certifications as dynamic rather than static institutional devices, this work offers insights for entrepreneurship, organization theory, and institutional scholarship, and provides a foundation for future research on sustainability standards.