Disclosing social impact to public and private stakeholders: opportunities and limitations of SROI analysis for social enterprises

This paper aims to propose a reflection on the role of social impact measurements in the accountability practices of Third Sector Organizations (TSOs) towards their stakeholders, with particular reference to public administrations. Following the Italian Third Sector Reform (2016) and the publication of the national guidelines for social impact assessments (2019), the Italian third sector is at the center of an important reform process that still raises many questions. Despite explicitly promoting the use of social impact assessment and encouraging its application to public procurement and tax exemption and granting processes, the Italian legislator has still not provided concrete methodological indications on how social impact should be assessed. By bringing the debate on social impact back to the theoretical framework of institutional and stakeholder theories, the authors provide an empirical application of SROI (Social Return On Investment) analysis, aimed at shedding light on its potential role in ensuring accountability for private and public stakeholders. For this purpose, a common evaluation framework based on the SROI method has been designed and applied by the authors to assess the social impact generated by the social enterprises that participate in a consortium actively engaged in promoting job inclusion of disadvantaged people.