A new perspective in business evaluation: measuring social impact value. A case study on Italian work integration cooperatives

Social impact measurement, as well as the motivations that induce private entities to monitor their own social impact, are widely debated topics by scholars and practitioners. In this study, we focus on evaluation and social impact measurement among non profit organizations, specifically Italian work integrations cooperatives. We can demonstrate that the cooperatives obtain a net social value higher than Euro invested in the activities. We think that awareness about dimension of social value can contribute to learn and promote the social cooperatives’ purpose and improve their learning and self-reflection on internal decision making process. In fact, to be useful, the measurement has not to comply rules, but to come from proactively behaviour to improve results and (social)performance. In this sense, the social valuation process can be extended to every enterprise, not only social or non profit organizations, founding a business assessment system based also on the measurement of social impact generated by the enterprises, and not only on financial performance.