Social return on investment in the public sector

Abstract

Purpose Social return on investment (SROI) is a systematic way of incorporating social values of different stakeholders into public sector decision-making on sustainability. This study aims to identify salient factors that influence SROI implementation. Design/methodology/approach The interactions of four Dutch municipalities and their social enterprises were examined, by analyzing relevant documents and interviewing key actors. Findings External forces appear to have little influence on SROI implementation. Management systems, legal restrictions in relation to privacy and the administrative burden appear to hinder SROI implementation. Findings suggest that trust among the parties involved and their representatives is a major driver for SROI development. SROI is not measured well enough, which complicates analyzing and reporting its development. Research limitations/implications Achieving collaboration through trust is a characteristic of stewardship theory, and therefore useful for studying social sustainability. Combining agency and stewardship theory provides useful insights concerning the application of control mechanisms versus empowerment. Practical implications Barriers can be overcome by informing and engaging suppliers in SROI initiatives. Furthermore, findings of this study suggest that it is easier for municipalities to incorporate SROI when social firm activities are insourced. An independent procurement function stimulates SROI development. Engaged professionals can make the difference in SROI policy implementation, more so than written policies. Social implications SROI enables social sustainability. SROI can be used by public agencies to provide meaningful activities for the long-term unemployed and underprivileged adolescents. Originality/value The study is the first empirical work that relates public procurement to SROI implementation and its effect on suppliers. The findings provide valuable insights into government influence on social enterprises.

Assessing Social Sustainability for Achieving Sustainable Architecture

“…The SROI analysis is considered a tool to develop social sustainability [58]. Once a project strategy is defined as a result of the SWOT analysis and once the main stakeholders involved in the process have been defined with their aims and objectives, the SROI allows us to define a framework to explore and understand in monetary terms the social impact, through a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches.…”

Retorno de la inversión social de la estrategia de internacionalización de la MiPymes agrícolas

“…Del mismo modo, los inversores sociales pueden usarlo para evaluar el éxito y el pago de inversiones sociales similares. Para comenzar a investigar este enfoque, Vluggen et al, (2020) recomiendan seguir los siguientes pasos:…”

“…A medida que el sector sin fines de lucro continúa compitiendo por dineros caritativos limitados, se vuelve cada vez más importante que podamos comprender no solo que un programa es una buena causa, sino que sus beneficios sociales argumentan para aumentar las inversiones en el trabajo. Por lo tanto, se debe entender la creación de valor generado por empresas sociales y la documentación de esa creación de valor a través de la aplicación del análisis SROI (Vluggen et al, 2020).…”

Stewardship and administrative capacity in green public procurement in the Czech Republic: evidence from a large-N survey

“…In the public procurement literature, the problems of stewardship have been widely acknowledged in areas as diverse as the Covid recovery (Harland, 2021), social investment (Vluggen et al, 2020), and military procurement (Fourie, 2017). However, we suggest that in the Czech context, these problems are particularly exacerbated by the fact that the Czech public procurement system has traditionally been Loading [MathJax]/jax/output/CommonHTML/fonts/TeX/fontdata.js more formalistic compared to the older EU members (Plaček et al, 2020).…”