Biodiversity loss poses profound ethical questions for business, yet B2B marketing scholarship has largely overlooked it. Grounded in Resource-Advantage theory (Hunt, 2015), we develop an ethical architecture for biodiversity-centric B2B marketing and introduce “trust in systemic change” — stakeholders’ confidence in firms’ commitment to nature-positive transformation. Using 4,142 pharmaceutical sites across 40+ countries, we present a Global Corporate Site Biodiversity Index (CSBI) demonstrating how open-access biodiversity data serves as a strategic enabler aligned with compliance frameworks.
Biodiversity loss is a defining global crisis raising profound ethical questions about how firms relate to nature, affected communities, and future generations. Yet business-to-business (B2B) marketing scholarship has given remarkably little attention to biodiversity, despite its distinctive ethical stakes for firms, communities, and ecosystems.
This research develops an ethical architecture of biodiversity-centric B2B marketing, grounded in Resource-Advantage (R-A) theory (Hunt, 2015). We introduce the construct of “trust in systemic change” — stakeholders’ confidence that firms are substantively committed to science-based, nature-positive transformations. Using the pharmaceutical sector, encompassing 4,142 corporate sites across more than 40 countries, we introduce a Global Corporate Site Biodiversity Index (CSBI) and demonstrate how open-access biodiversity data can serve as a strategic enabler aligned with the compliance frameworks.
Tap any cell to explore details. Toggle between simple and comprehensive views.
| Domain | Ethics-Infused R-A Lens | Corresponding SBTN Action Category | Data Leveraging Open-Access Biodiversity Data for Framework Compliance and Ethical Accountability |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Defensive and due diligence biodiversity-centric B2B marketing
Strategic marketing intent: Minimise environmental, legal, and reputational risks tied to biodiversity
Firms adopting this approach focus on compliance-driven risk mitigation, ensuring their supply chains and operations meet minimum biodiversity standards to avoid legal, reputational, and financial penalties. tap for details
|
Protect existing positional advantages
(Risk-avoidance driven)
Manage intangible resources (e.g., trust, ethical legitimacy, regulatory licences) by managing intangible resources like trust, ethics, and sustainability legitimacy. tap for details
|
Avoid & Reduce
Avoid actions are aimed at preventing negative impacts on biodiversity from occurring in the first place. Reduce actions focus on minimising negative impacts on biodiversity, though they do not necessarily eliminate them entirely. tap for details
|
Open-access datasets & databases
Examples of open-access datasets:
tap for details
|
|
Proactive and positive-impact biodiversity-centric B2B marketing
Strategic marketing intent: Create new sources of competitive advantage via biodiversity engagement
Firms adopting this approach actively seek to create new biodiversity-related intangible resources, building competitive advantage through nature-positive innovation and stakeholder engagement. tap for details
|
Build new resource advantages
(Value-creation driven)
Build new resource advantages (e.g., co-developed biodiversity-related intellectual property (IP), brand equity, ethical sourcing partnerships, new class of digital assets) that can differentiate the firm. tap for details
|
Regenerate, Restore & Transform
Regenerate actions are implemented within existing land uses to enhance the biophysical functions and/or ecological productivity of an ecosystem or its components. Restore actions seek to initiate or accelerate the recovery of an ecosystem in terms of its health, integrity, and sustainability, with an emphasis on achieving permanent improvements in ecological state. Transform actions contribute to system-wide change by addressing the root drivers of biodiversity loss through technological, economic, institutional, and social factors, and by shifting underlying values and behaviours. tap for details
|
Compliance frameworks & CSBI
Examples of compliance frameworks:
tap for details
|
The CSBI integrates environmental and biodiversity data into a single site-level metric, standardised from 0.01 to 99.99:
Part A (70%) — 7 indicators: Water Availability, Water Condition, Air Condition, Wildfire Hazard, Plant/Forest/Aquatic Pests & Diseases, Land/Freshwater/Sea Use Change, and Pollution.
Part B (30%) — 2 indicators: Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII 2020) and Bioclimatic Ecosystem Resilience Index (BERI 2020).
Interactive platform with 4,142 pharmaceutical sites across 40+ countries.
Filter by company, country, CSBI category, urbanisation, and value chain.
Browse all 4,142 sites with real CSBI scores. Filter by CSBI category (Elite/Strong/Moderate/Poor), company, country of origin, and urbanisation level.
Deep-dive analytics comparing selected firms against the consolidated pharmaceutical industry. Each site is scored across 9 environmental and biodiversity indicators.
Explore how CSBI translates into reputational capital. Sites are classified into Excellent, Moderate, and Poor reputation tiers with interactive charts.
BioDivIQ enables companies to benchmark sites, identify Corporate Site Biodiversity Index (CSBI), and align biodiversity-centric strategic marketing with global frameworks like the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and TNFD.
CSBI significantly predicts site-level reputational capital (β = .46, t = 31.27, p < .001), demonstrating that biodiversity-related intangible resources — trust, ethics, and sustainability legitimacy — translate into competitive advantage through verifiable, data-driven evidence of nature-positive performance.
Consistent with Resource-Advantage theory, CSBI significantly predicts site-level reputational capital. Biodiversity-related intangible resources — trust, ethics, and sustainability legitimacy — translate into competitive advantage. CSBI operationalises “trust in systemic change” by providing verifiable, data-driven evidence of nature-positive performance, creating decentralised stakeholder confidence.
BioDivIQ science-based platform using open-access ecological datasets to deliver biodiversity insights and CSBI scores across sites.
Practical implications:
A. Diagnose portfolio positioning on the defensive-to-proactive continuum
B. Interrogate greenwashing via the 4-matrix framework of corporate sustainability
C. Enable verifiable biodiversity claims through open data
D. Embed nature into capital allocation via biodiversity-linked financial instruments and digital asset innovation
Tan, T. M. and Prabhu, J. (2026). Using Biodiversity Data for Business Sustainability: A Global Corporate Site Biodiversity Index (CSBI) and Trust-Based Strategic Marketing Framework, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-540, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-540.
Tan, T. M. & Prabhu, J. (2026). Biodiversity-Centric Marketing: An Ethical Architecture for Trust Formation and Corporate Sustainability. Working Paper. University of Oulu and University of Cambridge.