The measurement of social impact and opportunities for research in business administration

Abstract

In the last decades, management scholars have examined ways through which firms can build profitable operations while at the same time addressing pressing social and environmental concerns. But how can organizations ascertain whether their isolated or collaborative efforts are truly generating positive impact to their target populations? Measuring real impact requires addressing several issues related to causality, comparability, and cost (given that most methods require customized data collection and analysis). In this article, I briefly discuss alternative methods to assess impact and then suggest novel research avenues to inform the debate on how to measure impact and how impact measurement practices can help organizations blend social and economic goals.