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Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Being an applied-research project, the purpose of this dissertation is to enable the Lisbon office of
BSD Consulting to gain knowledge of the frameworks allowing firms (BSD’s clients) to measure and
monitor the impact of their Corporate Social Initiatives (CSI) in order to help them to define better their
features and to maximize their performance. Indeed, since no recognized standards exist for CSI
reporting, despite the fact they can produce social and financial benefits, these programs are generally
poorly integrated into strategy and evaluated by managers.
Ultimately, and this is our main finding, 2 conditions were identified to maximize CSI positive
externalities both for business and for society. The first is to adopt a strategic paradigm for these
initiatives aligning business and social goals while using firms’ core competencies, and the second is
to assess their impact. Hence, we show that impact measurement processes could act as
‘management information systems’ letting managers not only to quantify CSI benefits but mostly to
monitor and improve their performance. This point, representing the genesis of the researches
undertaken for BSD, constitutes an important focus in this paper and we analyse how firms can set-up
CSI impact measurement programs.
In addition of presenting different theoretical perspectives, we give throughout the essay examples of
contextual relevance, mainly of best practices done by Portuguese companies. Finally, we present the
case of the bank Crédito Agrícola, a BSD’s client with whom collaboration is undertaken to determine
better the focus of their CSI in order to quantify and maximize their impact.