Measuring and maximizing the impact of corporate social initiatives : a case study for BSD

Abstract

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.