Social Impact Measurement: Current Approaches and Future Directions for Social Entrepreneurship Research

Despite the importance of social impact to social entrepreneurship research, standards for measuring an organization’s social impact are underdeveloped on both theoretical and empirical grounds. We identify a sample of 71 relevant papers from leading (FT50) business journals that examine, conceptual...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEntrepreneurship theory and practice Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 82 - 115
Main Authors Rawhouser, Hans, Cummings, Michael, Newbert, Scott L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.01.2019
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship
Measurement
Social entrepreneurship
Social impact
Ventures
social entrepreneurship
social impact
social performance
social value
performance measurement
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Summary:Despite the importance of social impact to social entrepreneurship research, standards for measuring an organization’s social impact are underdeveloped on both theoretical and empirical grounds. We identify a sample of 71 relevant papers from leading (FT50) business journals that examine, conceptually or empirically, the measurement of social impact. We first describe the breadth of definitions, data sources, and operationalizations of social impact. Based on this analysis, we generate a typology of four approaches to conceptualizing social impact, which we use to organize insights and recommendations regarding improved measurement of the social impact of entrepreneurial ventures.
ISSN:1042-2587
1540-6520
DOI:10.1177/1042258717727718