Browsing by Author "Hofmann, Malte"
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- Understanding decoupling in the relationship between social enterprises and impact investors : an exploratory studyPublication . Hofmann, Malte; Ramus, TommasoSocial enterprises are increasingly required by impact investors to provide reliable indicators about their societal impact in order to get funds to support their activities. However, measuring social impact is extremely complex. In this exploratory thesis, I study the drivers leading to decoupling of impact measurement procedures in the relationships of social enterprises and impact investors. To do so, I conducted semi-structured interviews with both social enterprises and impact investors, used field notes from group discussions and industry reports. The data shows that the motivation for impact measurement, the requirements for metrics as well as impact measurement procedures and the characteristics of investors have a significant influence on the risk of decoupling. Furthermore, I show that due to the strong and transparent relationship between social enterprises and investors, organisations rather occur in means-end than policy-practice decoupling. While policy-practice decoupling is characterized by symbolic implementation of policies, organisations occurring in means-end decoupling implement policies, without them influencing their activities and outcomes. Based on my results I build a process model that helps to get a better understanding of decoupling in social enterprises and to asses and reduce the risk of decoupling