MANAGING AND MEASURING SOCIAL IMPACT THROUGH INTEGRATED THINKING AND REPORTING

Contemporary organizations face the critical need to identify valuable accounting and reporting practices that represent and communicate their impacts on the environment and on society. However, no widely accepted scientific approach to impact measurement exists, and the relationship between organizational impacts and the resources (capitals) used throughout the value creation process is unclear. This chapter illustrates the design of an impact assessment tool in a public organization. The chapter draws upon the experience of a European university to show the potential of combining Integrated Thinking and Reporting with two widely used impact assessment tools (the Social Return on Investment and the Total Impact Measurement Model) to better understand and assess organizations’ impacts according to the different capitals exploited to create value for stakeholders.