The need to measure the value generated by social enterprises arose as a result of their transformation from a welfare state model to a welfare society model. In the last twenty years, there has been a change in both the sources of resources for social services, increasingly oriented towards the market and its forms of support, and the consequent need to develop methodologies and tools for assessing the social impact of their work on the communities they serve. The issue of social impact assessment is also linked to the need to find a response to the European guideline on the subject, which states that the objective of social impact measurement is “to measure the social effects and impact on society determined by specific activities of a social enterprise” and that any method of measurement must be developed starting from the main results obtained by the social enterprise, must favour its activities, be proportionate and must not hinder social innovation. After providing a brief overview of the ‘social economy’ and the methods used to assess the social impact of enterprises, proposed in the literature, by international organisations and other interested associations, we propose the application of a multidimensional model for assessing the impact of social enterprises to a case study of a social enterprise in Catania (Italy) that is representative of the local reality. The results obtained, although limited to a localised reality, have made it possible to highlight some interesting aspects, especially with regard to certain dimensions.
"Social impact" assessment in the new farm welfare model
Alessandro Scuderi;Luisa Sturiale
;Giovanni La Via;Gaetano Chinnici;Carla Zarba
2024-01-01
Abstract
The need to measure the value generated by social enterprises arose as a result of their transformation from a welfare state model to a welfare society model. In the last twenty years, there has been a change in both the sources of resources for social services, increasingly oriented towards the market and its forms of support, and the consequent need to develop methodologies and tools for assessing the social impact of their work on the communities they serve. The issue of social impact assessment is also linked to the need to find a response to the European guideline on the subject, which states that the objective of social impact measurement is “to measure the social effects and impact on society determined by specific activities of a social enterprise” and that any method of measurement must be developed starting from the main results obtained by the social enterprise, must favour its activities, be proportionate and must not hinder social innovation. After providing a brief overview of the ‘social economy’ and the methods used to assess the social impact of enterprises, proposed in the literature, by international organisations and other interested associations, we propose the application of a multidimensional model for assessing the impact of social enterprises to a case study of a social enterprise in Catania (Italy) that is representative of the local reality. The results obtained, although limited to a localised reality, have made it possible to highlight some interesting aspects, especially with regard to certain dimensions.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.