Measuring Impact in Social Entrepreneurship: New Accountabilities to Stakeholders and Investors?

Dr Alex Nicholls

Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

Said Business School

INTRODUCTION

In conventional business contexts external and internal market mechanisms are typically relied upon to ensure efficient resource allocation. Over the past hundred years or so information rich capital markets have evolved to channel finance towards successful ventures and away from failures ensuring that economic Darwinism constantly drives up productivity and inspires innovation and continuous improvement across the developed countries of the North. Within organizations the establishment and implementation of accepted accounting standards allied with new quality management practices have pushed both the manufacturing and service sectors towards better performance and greater efficiency in the use of resources. The mix of reliable output measurements and accepted norms of accountability has underpinned the extraordinary growth in wealth generation provided to society by the modern industrial paradigm. Whilst the distribution of such wealth remains shockingly uneven, the contribution of credible metrics and robust accountability (pace Enron and WorldCom etc) to this business revolution is widely accepted.