Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social impact'

A inovação surge normalmente associada à ciência e à tecnologia. Porém, a inovação também ocorre no domínio social e embora só nos últimos anos tenha ganho destaque, a inovação social ocorre desde sempre. A subsistência de problemas sociais complexos agrava-se pela existência de estruturas e políticas públicas insatisfatórias no combate à eliminação dos mais prementes problemas atuais. A complexidade dos problemas acumulados por décadas possui inúmeras causas e poucas ou desadequadas soluções. A inovação social consiste no desenvolvimento de soluções inovadoras para problemas da sociedade, com impacto superior às soluções existentes, surge como alternativa viável para o futuro da sociedade. No entanto, a falta de instrumentos adequados de financiamento da inovação social é um dos atuais problemas para o desenvolvimento de iniciativas de inovação social. A presente dissertação visa estudar novos e inovadores modelos de financiamento, os títulos de impacto social representam uma resposta inovadora a este desafio, e são já a promessa do futuro do financiamento na inovação social, uma vez que o financiamento é direcionado essencialmente para capacitar as iniciativas e para apoiar o seu crescimento orientado para a obtenção de resultados; Abstract: Innovation is usually associated with science and technology. However, innovation also occurs in the social field and although it has only gained prominence in recent years, social innovation has always occurred. The subsistence of complex social problems is aggravated by the existence of unsatisfactory structures and public policies to address and eliminate many of today's pressing problems. The complexity of the problems accumulated over decades has many causes and few or inadequate solutions. Social innovation is the development of innovative solutions to societal problems, which have a greater impact than existing solutions, as a viable alternative for the future of society. However, the lack of adequate instruments to finance social innovation is one of the current problems for the development of social innovation initiatives. This dissertation aims to study new and innovative funding models, social impact bonds represent an innovative response to this challenge, and are already the promise for the future of social innovation funding is primarily directed towards empowering initiatives and supporting their result-oriented growth.

The aim of the dissertation is to provide an analysis of the Social Impact Bond phenomenon, by highlighting the innovative nature of this instrument: it belongs to that line of finance with a social impact which joins the more traditional one. The analysis of SIBs is carried out by focusing on their objectives, their operating structure and their combination of financial returns and social impact. The paper starts with an analysis of the macro Impact Investing areas, namely the set of investments intended to generate a quantifiable impact at a social, environmental and financial level as well . This innovative type of finance has recently gained much popularity thanks to a reassessment of the role of finance in support of economic and social progress. The most outstanding feature of these investments is the intention of producing an effect in the social sphere, renouncing to high returns. A third dimension, social impact, is thus added to those of risk and return, which have traditionally determined investment decisions. The paper deals with the birth of the idea of a finance aimed at social service, it examines the forms of Impact Investing, that is its instruments and concentrates on what is defined as the Impact Investing market framework. There is a detailed scrutiny of offer and demand in order to arrive to a study of the third dimension. Being the Social Impact Bonds the central theme, a mapping of the projects already launched worldwide is provided and some case studies are presented. This is followed by an analysis of these instruments in Italy, by a study of the current regulations and of the third sector reform, which opens up the way to the possibility of adopting these instruments in the Italian context. The existing social finance instruments are also examined.

Mestrado em Gestão de Projetos
As Organizações do Terceiro setor têm assumido um papel cada vez mais relevante na sociedade devido a um diversificado conjunto de atividades. O seu crescimento e o grande número de projetos que desenvolvem explicam a constante necessidade de recursos financeiros para o cumprimento da sua missão que, na maioria, são obtidos junto de terceiros. A gestão por projetos é um dos métodos de trabalho adotados no Terceiro Setor. Os projetos sociais são um dos meios utilizados pelas suas organizações para a concretização da sua missão, ou seja, integram as medidas utilizadas no exercício da intervenção social profissional. O desenvolvimento de um projeto visa a introdução de mudanças, promovendo o desenvolvimento social e económico para gerar benefícios (ou impacto social). São escassos os indicadores que permitam a mensuração do retorno social para cada recurso obtido e gerido pelas Organizações do Terceiro Setor. Neste contexto, tem vindo a ser divulgada a metodologia Social Return on Investment (SROI).O rácio SROI traduz, em termos monetários, o impacto social gerado pelo desenvolvimento de um projeto. Para responder às questões de investigação levantadas neste trabalho adotou-se uma abordagem qualitativa-explanatória com o estudo de múltiplos casos, como técnica fundamental. No respeitante ao horizonte temporal, a pesquisa foi cross-sectional. Os resultados encontrados sugerem que a metodologia SROI é complementar à Gestão de Projetos, é uma ferramenta adequada e robusta para medir o retorno dos investimentos sociais e fornece informação importante para a justificação dos investimentos.
Third Sector organizations have been assuming an increasingly relevant role in society due to a diverse set of activities. Their growth and the large number of projects they develop, explain the constant need of resources to fulfill its mission, most being obtained from third parties. Management by projects is one of the work methods adopted in the Third Sector. Social projects are one of the means used by their organizations for the accomplishment of its mission, ie, integrate the measures used in the exercise of professional social intervention. The development of a project aims at introducing changes, promoting social and economic development to generate benefits (or social impact). There are few indicators for the measurement of social return for each resource obtained and managed by Third Sector Organizations. In this context, the Social Return on Investment methodology (SROI) is being divulged. The SROI ratio translates, in monetary terms, the social impact generated by the development of a project. To answer the research questions raised in this study a qualitative-explanatory approach was adopted to the study of multiple cases, as a fundamental technique. As regards the time horizon, the research was cross-sectional. The results found suggest that the SROI methodology is complementary to Project Management, is a suitable and robust tool to measure the return on social investment and provides important information for justification of investments.

Projeto de Graduação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de licenciada em Enfermagem
Nos tempos modernos assiste-se a um aumento da esperança média de vida, e com isso um aumento do número de idosos com dependência. Assim a necessidade de prestação de cuidados por parte de terceiros nomeadamente cuidadores é francamente maior. Com o avançar da idade surge o aumento da dependência no idoso e com isso todas as limitações que o envelhecimento acarreta. Assim surgem os cuidadores informais, que segundo Neri e Carvalho (2002) citado por Oliveira (2009) cit in Sousa, partilham da opinião que o cuidador informal é habitualmente um familiar ou alguém muito próximo do idoso. Oliveira (2009) cit in Sousa (2011), salienta que as necessidades da família de cuidar da pessoa idosa dependente pode causar situações de stress e problemas de saúde físicos e mentais. Ainda assim esta função pode gerar sentimentos de frustração, ansiedade, inquietação e uma preocupação constante na pessoa que cuida, sendo que esta pode levar á sobrecarga do cuidador informal. Face ao exposto surgiu o interesse por parte da investigadora de aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre esta temática e entender qual a intervenção da enfermagem. Assim, o objetivo geral delineado para o presente Projeto de Graduação foi: Avaliar a sobrecarga dos cuidadores informais de Ponte de Lima. A população escolhida foram cuidadores informais do concelho de Ponte de Lima e dentro dos mesmos selecionou-se uma amostra de 30 elementos com pelo menos 6 meses a exercer a atividade de cuidador informal e que pertencem ao concelho de Ponte de Lima. Como instrumento de recolha de dados recorreu-se ao Questionário de Avaliação da Sobrecarga do Cuidador Informal da autoria da Professora Doutora Teresa Martins. A Sobrecarga do Cuidador Informal em Ponte de Lima Em termos de tipo de estudo, optou-se por um estudo quantitativo, descritivo simples e transversal de acordo com a metodologia de Fortin (2009). Após análise e discussão dos dados conclui-se que dos 30 elementos que constituem a amostra, maioritariamente são do género feminino, possuem idades compreendidas entre os 21 e os 77 anos, tendo assim uma média de idades de 45 anos. Relativamente aos dados obtidos com a aplicação do QASCI conclui-se que os fatores com mais influência na caracterização da sobrecarga do cuidador informal foram o IVP, SE, SF e RE, tendo-se obtido um nível de sobrecarga moderada com um total de 35,30%. Isto vai de encontro ao exposto por Martins (2003) em que sugere como níveis de sobrecarga: o valor 0 indica ausência de sobrecarga, de 1 a 25 considera-se sobrecarga ligeira, 25 a 50 corresponde a uma sobrecarga moderada, de 50 a 75 indica sobrecarga grave e por fim um valor maior a 75 é indicador de sobrecarga extremamente grave.
In this modern times, it is attended an increase of the hope of life, and with that an increase of the number of seniors with dependence. Like this, the need of care giving on the part of third namely caretakers are frankly larger. With the elderness, the increase of the dependence it appears in the senior and with that all of the limitations that the aging carts. Like this the informal caretakers appear, that according to Neri e Carvalho (2002) mentioned by Oliveira (2009) cit in Sousa, share of the opinion that the informal caretaker is habitually a relative or somebody very close of the senior. Oliveira (2009) cit in Sousa (2011), points out that the needs of the family to take care of the dependent senior person can cause stress situations and physical and mental problems. Nevertheless this function can generate frustration feelings, anxiety, inquietude and a constant concern in the person that takes care, and this can take the informal caretaker's á overload. Face to the exposed the interest appeared on the part of the investigator of to deep the knowledge on this theme and to understand which the intervention of the nursing. Like this, the general objective delineated for the present Graduation Projert was: To evaluate the informal caretakers from Ponte Lima overload. The chosen population was informal caretakers of the county of Ponte Lima and inside of the same ones a sample of 30 elements was selected with at least 6 months to exercise informal caretaker's activity. As instrument of colleting data was the Questionnaire of Evaluation of the Overload of the Informal Caretaker of the Teacher's authorship Teresa Martins. In terms of study type, was a simple and traverse study quantitative, descriptive in agreement with the methodology of Fortin (2009). A Sobrecarga do Cuidador Informal em Ponte de Lima After analysis and discussion of the data the 30 elements that constitute the sample, most part are of the feminine gender, they possess ages understood between the 21 and the 77 years, tends like this an average of 45 year-old. In concern to the data obtained with the application of QASCI is ended that the factors with more influence in the characterization of the informal caretaker's overload were IVP, IF, SF and RE, having obtained a level of moderate overload with a total of 35,30%. This goes to same information into the exposed by Martins (2003) in that suggests as overload levels: the value 0 indicates overload absence, from 1 to 25 is considered quick overload, 25 to 50 correspond to a moderate overload, from 50 to 75 indicates serious overload and finally a larger value to 75 is indicative of extremely serious overload.
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Bakgrund: Impact investment är en ny finansieringsform, som med sitt ursprung och framväxt i både USA och Europa nu spridits till Sverige. Fenomenet beskrivs inom populärvetenskapen som investeringar med avsikten att generera en mätbar samhällsmässig och/eller miljömässig avkastning tillsammans med en finansiell avkastning. I Sverige har impact investment sedan bara några år tillbaka uppmärksammats av svenska aktörer som har börjat arbeta med investeringsformen. Fenomenet kan ses som en idé som överförts till ett nytt sammanhang, därden har uppmärksammats och blivit till verksamhetsaktiviteter. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att skapa förståelse för fenomenet impact investment i Sverige och att analysera på vilket sätt impact investment har formats av sitt sammanhang. Metod: Studien har en hermeneutisk forskningsansats och har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod. En intervjustudie har utförts med totalt sju nyckelpersoner inom det svenska organisationsfältet för impact investment. Internationella rapporter om fenomenet har även använts för att kartlägga de aktiviteter som genomförts i de länder som ingår i studien. Slutsats: Studien visar att impact investment har flera olika innebörder i Sverige. Impact investment har formats av sitt sammanhang vilket har resulterat i att impact investment har översatts av nya hybridorganisationer i samhället.
Background: Impact investment is a new funding that has its origin and growth in both the USA and Europe. It is now emerging to Sweden. The phenomenon is described in the popular science literature as investments with the intention to generate measurable social and/or environmental impact along with a financial return. In Sweden impact investment has been observed for only a few years. Swedish operators have started to use the funding and the phenomenon can be understood as an idea that has moved to a new context, where it has been noticed and used in operational activities. Aim: The aim of the study is to create an understanding of the phenomenon impact investment in Sweden and to analyse in what way impact investment has been formed by its context. Methodology: The study has a hermeneutic research approach and has been conducted with a qualitative approach. The study has been realized with a total of seven key figures in the Swedish organizational field of impact investment. International reports of the phenomenon have been used to track the activities conducted in the countries included in the study. Conclusion: The study shows that impact investment has many different meanings in Sweden. Impact investment has been formed by its context and has been translated by new hybrid organisations in the society.

Mestrado em Gestão e Estratégia Industrial
A Inovação Social Corporativa (ISC) é um tema resultante na aposta das empresas na Sustentabilidade e na Responsabilidade Social. O presente estudo aborda a evolução do tema ISC e como são medidos os impactos dos projetos desta natureza: impactos económicos e impactos sociais. Ambas as tipologias são analisadas num contexto de negócio e num contexto social. O estudo de caso EDP permite avaliar um projeto de ISC, titulado como Junto à Terra (JaT) cujo objetivo é a educação para a sustentabilidade como forma de retenção populacional. Através do Business Model Canvas é feita a análise de modelo de negócio e posteriormente uma análise aos inputs, outputs e preocupação em medir os impactos. A presente investigação permitiu concluir que existem vários termos para ISC e que dado contexto de competitividade atual é uma forma estratégica de marcar um posicionamento ou expandir os mercados, através da resolução de um problema social. A EDP é uma empresa com elevada Responsabilidade Social (RS) e define como umas das suas prioridades a medição dos impactos, sejam sociais, organizacionais e de negócio. A ferramenta utilizada é o London Benchmarking Group (LBG) e a estratégia passa pela criação e adoção de macro indicadores que espelhem a realidade. O JaT insere-se num dos objetivos da Política Investimento Social da EDP e dado a estratégia inerente, a dimensão do projeto pelo número de stakeholders e abrangência territorial, o elevado investimento e a escalabilidade, cumpre com os critérios para a medição de impactos.
Corporate Social Innovation (CSI) results of the commitment to Sustainability and Social Responsability (SR). The present study focus on the course of CSI and how the impacts are measured: economic and social impacts. Both are analysed in business and social contexts. The case study is about EDP and the project is Junto à Terra (JaT). JaT is a project that the objective is to educate to sustainability as a form of prevent the rural depopulation. Applying Business Model Canvas is analyzed the business model, and then the inputs, outputs and the concern about measuring impacts. This study allows to conclude that there are several definitons about CSI and according to market competitivess panorama, could be a strategical way for an approach to a new market or even to establish a position, by solving a social problema. EDP is a company with high SR and one of the priorities is measuring social, business and corporate impacts. The method used is London Benchmarking Group (LBG) and now the path is working in macro indicators. According, to EDP's Social Investment Policy, the dimension of the project, by the number os stakeholders and the size of the demographic area, the investiment and the potencial to implement in other regions are the criterias that determinate that JaT should be submited to an impacts assessment.
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

O investimento de impacto é um conceito intermediário entre investimento tradicional e filantropia, e ainda representa uma fração pequena dos valores movimentados nas outras duas áreas. No entanto, é uma área que vem crescendo muito rapidamente e ganhando adeptos não só entre as organizações sociais, mas também nos mercados privado e governamental, e estima-se que essa modalidade de investimento possa movimentar cerca de um trilhão de dólares em 2020. Se o grande diferencial entre o investimento de impacto e o tradicional é justamente o impacto positivo gerado, para que o desenvolvimento do campo seja efetivo, urge um melhor entendimento do que é este impacto e como avaliá-lo. Assim, com a visão de contribuir com a discussão acerca da avaliação do impacto social na seara dos investimentos de impacto, o presente trabalho buscou responder à questão de pesquisa \"Como realizar a avaliação prévia (due diligence) do impacto social de um novo projeto?\". Para tanto, foi proposto um modelo de análise do impacto baseado na experiência do Acumen Fund, que foi aplicado no projeto de tecnologia assistiva mDREET, desenvolvido pelo negócio social Solar Ear. O foco do trabalho foi a fase inicial da avaliação dos investimentos, a due diligence, e o resultado obtido foi a demonstração, na prática, de um modelo simples de avaliação, que se mostrou válido para disseminar a compreensão do processo que leva ao impacto social esperado. Por demandar poucos recursos financeiros e de tempo, uma vez entendido, este modelo pode ser adaptado e replicado em diferentes contextos.
Impact investing is a recent concept, intermediary between traditional investment and philanthropy, and, in terms of assets under management, represents a small fraction from both other areas. Nevertheless, it has been growing at a high pace, and not only amongst the third sector. The private and public sector have been making some moves towards this direction and the estimated potential of this market is around one trillion dollars by 2020. If the big difference between impact investing and traditional investing is the intentional social and environmental positive impact, to enable a consistent growth, there is an urgent need to better define what this impact means and how to measure it. In order to contribute to this discussion, the current work aims to answer the research question \"How to make the due diligence of a new project\'s social impact?\". To accomplish this goal, the author proposes an impact evaluation model based on Acumen Fund practices. This framework was applied in mDREET, an assistive technology project developed by a social business named Solar Ear. The focus has been placed on the tools used in the due diligence phase and as a result, it is presented a simple and low cost process for social impact due diligence, which can be further refined as the company progress in the investment analysis pipeline. Once this process is understood, it can be adapted and used in different occasion/context.

Projecto de Graduação apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Licenciado em Serviço Social
O fenómeno da imigração de brasileiros em Portugal não é recente. Começou por estar circunscrito às elites, mas a partir de 1990 assumiu contornos terceiro-mundistas, consistindo num grande fluxo de pessoas associado a origens sociais modestas. Através de uma metodologia qualitativa, com enfoque em análise de conteúdo e recorrendo a entrevista semi-estruturada, foram avaliadas as perceções dos imigrantes brasileiros acerca da realidade social atual em Portugal, bem como o impacto da crise na sua decisão de regressar ao Brasil, entre outros aspetos. Foram entrevistados 20 imigrantes brasileiros com idades entre os 21 e 42 anos. Os resultados sugerem que a perceção dos imigrantes brasileiros acerca da situação atual de Portugal é a de falta de emprego e más condições de vida, entre outros aspectos. Apesar disso, a maioria dos imigrantes entrevistados consideram que Portugal ainda é um país onde se vive razoavelmente bem. Os resultados também sugerem que, apesar da maioria dos imigrantes querer regressar ao Brasil, grande parte não aponta data para o regresso. Entre as razões para regressar, encontram-se a perceção de um futuro promissor para os licenciados, a falta de trabalho e as condições socioeconómicas desfavoráveis em Portugal. Apesar disso, a maioria dos imigrantes refere estar razoavelmente ou bem inserido em Portugal.
Brazilian immigration phenomena in Portugal is not a recent one. Its onset was exclusively linked to high ranked people, but since 1990 it is characterized by a more third-world emigration, including a large number of persons associated with modest social origin. Using a qualitative methodology, with content analysis and semi-structured interviews, this work assesses Brazilian immigrants perceptions about actual Portuguese social reality, as well as the economic crisis impact on their decision to return to Brazil. Twenty Brazilian immigrants aged between 21 and 42 years old were interviewed. Results suggest that Brazilian immigrant’s perception about Portugal current situation is linked to unemployment, poor life conditions, among other factors. Despite that, most of the immigrants interviewed believe that Portugal is still a reasonable place to live in. Results also suggest that the majority of Brazilian immigrants want to return to Brazil. However they do not point a specific return date. Amongst the reasons to return we identify the perception of a better future for those who are graduated, the lack of labor, and poor socio-economic conditions in Portugal. Despite that, the majority agreed to be at least reasonably or well inserted in Portugal.
Le phénomène de l'immigration brésilienne au Portugal n'est pas récent. Son apparition était liée exclusivement aux personnes des classes sociales aisées, mais depuis 1990 elle est caractérisée par une émigration plus tiers-mondiste, touchant un grand nombre de personnes ayant des origines sociales modestes. En usant de la méthode qualitative, de l'analyse du contenu d’entretiens semi-structurés, ce travail évalue la perception des immigrés brésiliens sur la réalité sociale portugaise, ainsi que l'impact de la crise économique sur leur décision de retourner au Brésil. Vingt immigrés brésiliens âgés entre 21 et 42 ans ont été interviewés. Les résultats suggèrent que la perception des immigrés brésiliens sur la situation actuelle du Portugal est liée au chômage et aux mauvaises conditions de vie, entre autres facteurs. Malgré tout, la plupart des immigrés interviewés considèrent que le Portugal est toujours un endroit adéquat pour vivre. Les résultats suggèrent également que la majorité des immigrants brésiliens veulent retourner au Brésil. Cependant, ils n'indiquent pas une date de retour précise. Parmi les raisons du retour au pays, nous identifions la perception d'un avenir meilleur pour ceux qui sont diplômés, le manque de travail et les mauvaises conditions socioéconomiques au Portugal. Malgré cela, la majorité des immigrants interviewés s’éstiment raisonnablement ou bien insérés au Portugal.

[Context] Social impact refers to the positive and negative consequences of any organization on the environment and society. One actor in the social impact landscape is the impact investor who expects financial return for their investments as well as positive social impact. Although the impact investor plays a crucial role in the social impact capital market by financing organizations that explicitly address social and environmental problems, the academic literature regarding impact investing has yet to develop especially from the investor perspective. One reason for the lack of academic research in this field is that the impact investor stands at a crossroad, between social impact and social enterprise research. [Purpose] Therefore, the purpose of this research is to determine the current state of impact investment processes as well as the challenges that investors face and, lastly, the role of social impact measurement within the impact investing process. [Findings] An exploratory multi-case study was conducted with semi-structured interviews which resulted in eight interviews from impact investors across four countries and within different focus areas in the social impact landscape. The findings show that impact investors face a variety of challenges based on the stage of their portfolio enterprises, the alignment of the social enterprise’s business model with their social impact mission, the horizon of their investments and, last but not least, their investment exit strategies. As for the role of social impact measurement in the investment process, the findings show that the majority of impact investors measure the impact of their investments although the method of measurement varies while the remaining investors, that do not measure social impact, illustrate the challenges that come with measuring impact in their personal contexts such as the difficulty of measuring the impact of an early stage social enterprise that may be susceptible to pivots.
[Kontext] Social påverkan avser de positiva och negativa konsekvenserna av alla organisationer på miljön och samhället. En aktör i det sociala påverkanslandskapet är påverkansinvesterare som förväntar sig ekonomisk avkastning för sina investeringar samt positiva sociala effekter. Även om påverkansinvesterare spelar en avgörande roll på kapitalmarknaden för social påverkan genom att finansiera organisationer som uttryckligen behandlar sociala och miljömässiga problem, har den akademiska litteraturen angående impact investering ännu inte utvecklats särskilt ur investerarperspektivet. En anledning till bristen på akademisk forskning inom detta område är att påverkansinvesterare står vid en korsning mellan social påverkan och social företagsforskning. [Syfte] Syftet med denna forskning är därför att undersöka det aktuella tillståndet för effekterna av investeringsprocesser samt de utmaningar som investerare står inför och slutligen rollen för mätning av sociala effekter i effekten av investeringsprocessen. [Resultat] En undersökande multifallstudie genomfördes med semistrukturerade intervjuer som resulterade i åtta intervjuer från påverkansinvesterare i fyra länder och inom olika fokusområden i det sociala påverkanslandskapet. Resultaten visar att påverkansinvesterare möter olika utmaningar baserat på affärsfas i deras portföljföretag, anpassningen av det sociala företagets affärsmodell med deras sociala påverkan, deras investeringshorisont och, sist men inte minst, deras investeringsutgångsstrategier . När det gäller rollen för mätning av sociala konsekvenser i investeringsprocessen visar resultaten att majoriteten av påverkansinvesterare mäter effekterna av sina investeringar även om mätmetoden varierar medan de återstående investerarna, som inte mäter social påverkan, illustrerar de utmaningar som komma med att mäta påverkan i deras personliga sammanhang, såsom svårigheten att mäta effekterna av ett tidigt skede socialt företag som kan vara känsligt för svängningar.

[Context] Social impact refers to the positive and negative consequences of any organization on the environment and society. One actor in the social impact landscape is the impact investor who expects financial return for their investments as well as positive social impact. Although the impact investor plays a crucial role in the social impact capital market by financing organizations that explicitly address social and environmental problems, the academic literature regarding impact investing has yet to develop especially from the investor perspective. One reason for the lack of academic research in this field is that the impact investor stands at a crossroad, between social impact and social enterprise research. [Purpose] Therefore, the purpose of this research is to determine the current state of impact investment processes as well as the challenges that investors face and, lastly, the role of social impact measurement within the impact investing process. [Findings] An exploratory multi-case study was conducted with semi-structured interviews which resulted in eight interviews from impact investors across four countries and within different focus areas in the social impact landscape. The findings show that impact investors face a variety of challenges based on the stage of their portfolio enterprises, the alignment of the social enterprise’s business model with their social impact mission, the horizon of their investments and, last but not least, their investment exit strategies. As for the role of social impact measurement in the investment process, the findings show that the majority of impact investors measure the impact of their investments although the method of measurement varies while the remaining investors, that do not measure social impact, illustrate the challenges that come with measuring impact in their personal contexts such as the difficulty of measuring the impact of an early stage social enterprise that may be susceptible to pivots.
[Kontext] Social påverkan avser de positiva och negativa konsekvenserna av alla organisationer på miljön och samhället. En aktör i det sociala påverkanslandskapet är påverkansinvesterare som förväntar sig ekonomisk avkastning för sina investeringar samt positiva sociala effekter. Även om påverkansinvesterare spelar en avgörande roll på kapitalmarknaden för social påverkan genom att finansiera organisationer som uttryckligen behandlar sociala och miljömässiga problem, har den akademiska litteraturen angående impact investering ännu inte utvecklats särskilt ur investerarperspektivet. En anledning till bristen på akademisk forskning inom detta område är att påverkansinvesterare står vid en korsning mellan social påverkan och social företagsforskning. [Syfte] Syftet med denna forskning är därför att undersöka det aktuella tillståndet för effekterna av investeringsprocesser samt de utmaningar som investerare står inför och slutligen rollen för mätning av sociala effekter i effekten av investeringsprocessen. [Resultat] En undersökande multifallstudie genomfördes med semistrukturerade intervjuer som resulterade i åtta intervjuer från påverkansinvesterare i fyra länder och inom olika fokusområden i det sociala påverkanslandskapet. Resultaten visar att påverkansinvesterare möter olika utmaningar baserat på affärsfas i deras portföljföretag, anpassningen av det sociala företagets affärsmodell med deras sociala påverkan, deras investeringshorisont och, sist men inte minst, deras investeringsutgångsstrategier . När det gäller rollen för mätning av sociala konsekvenser i investeringsprocessen visar resultaten att majoriteten av påverkansinvesterare mäter effekterna av sina investeringar även om mätmetoden varierar medan de återstående investerarna, som inte mäter social påverkan, illustrerar de utmaningar som komma med att mäta påverkan i deras personliga sammanhang, såsom svårigheten att mäta effekterna av ett tidigt skede socialt företag som kan vara känsligt för svängningar.

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) have alternatively been portrayed as a promising tool to improve the functioning of welfare systems, or as an instrument of neoliberalism that threatens to undermine them. Recently, a more nuanced understanding of the promises as well as pitfalls of SIBs has developed, as both practical experiences and published empirical evidence about implemented SIBs have increased in number. We aim to contribute to the development of such an understanding by means of a combination of qualitative and quantitative text analysis. In doing so, we analyse a comprehensive sample of 51 practitioner reports on SIBs. We identify two key paradoxes of SIBs. These paradoxes centre on statements that cannot both hold true for the very same SIB: (1) flexible but evidence-based services and (2) cost-saving risk transfer to private investors. We conclude by discussing how those paradoxes have been resolved in existing SIBs so far, which strategies of de-paradoxification may turn out paramount in future, and how positive aspects of SIBs can be preserved while defusing their more problematic ones.

The research project explains the relationship between Twitter and Cryptocurrencies. The main idea is to proof the influence of Tweets, Retweet, Reply, Likes and Volumes on Cryptocurrencies Price as Dogecoin and Ethereum though stochastic model as ARIMAX.

Social Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprises are an emerging trend. An increasing number of individuals are finding ways to address a social issue through their entrepreneurial skills. As well as increasing number of corporations and investing organizations are looking for ventures that address a social issue to fulfill their social responsibility. Thus, it is increasingly becoming important for the social entrepreneurs to measure and report their impacts to society in an accurate way. This research seeks to find out the challenges faced by social entrepreneurs while setting up social impact measurements in their ventures and the solutions adopted by them. Through a series of semi‐structured interviews with successful social entrepreneurs, this research collects qualitative data that increases the knowledge in this area and contributes in a better understanding of the challenges faced by social entrepreneurs. This research found that Theory Of Change is the most commonly used method and is preferred by practitioners as it is easy to implement. The research summarises the efforts it takes to implement the measurements, recommends best practices or advice to make impact measurement easier and useful. Also, a framework is developed that can be used in setting up measurements in a social venture.

This study aims to investigate social impact practice in social enterprises in the UK. It explores the drivers and implementation of social impact, how social impact is assessed, the barriers to social impact assessment. This study adopts a qualitative case study approach. Specifically, multiple case studies of social enterprises. The approach to data collection was semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals with expert knowledge of social impact. This study found that internal mechanisms and external institutions drive social impact. The organisations reviewed their culture and structure to understand the norms and identify capabilities. Stakeholder engagement was paramount to social impact captured. Social impact is captured for accountability, social investment readiness, and to build trust with stakeholders. However, they face barriers such as resource constraints and capturing indirect social impact. The study uncovered that the council for voluntary service legal structure impedes access to social investment. This study contributes to normative isomorphism and the micro-context of institutional theory by presenting an in-depth understanding of internal mechanisms agenda for social impact. It also contributes to the intra-organisational development of social enterprises through the review of organisational culture and structure. This investigation provides an in-depth understanding of the rationale and process to social impact assessment. It provides six stages to social impact assessment based on social enterprises operating in the financial support and service sector. Also, it presents practical implications for senior management, board of directors, funders, and policy-makers due to their influence on social impact. Providing the extensive experiences of the boards in the social sector, they should capitalise on their networks by encouraging cross-sector collaborations. Funders need to take into consideration the organisational size and needs of the region in the funding criteria. Policy-makers could remove barriers on the council for voluntary service and community interest company legal structures to encourage cross-sectoral engagement.

Nossa incapacidade em compreender todos os fatores responsáveis por fenômenos naturais faz com que tenhamos que recorrer a simplificações na representação e na explicação destes. Por sua vez, a forma com que representamos e pensamos a respeito destes fenômenos é influenciada por fatores de natureza interna, como o nosso estado psicológico, ou então de natureza externa, como o ambiente social. Dentre os fatores externos, o ambiente social, ou contexto social, é um dos que tem maior influência na forma que pensamos e agimos. Quando estamos em grupo, mudamos a todo instante a forma com que resolvemos problemas em resposta ao contexto que nos cerca. Entretanto, esta característica até então foi pouco explorada em modelos computacionais de resolução coletiva de problemas. Este trabalho investiga o impacto do contexto social na resolução coletiva de problemas. Nós apresentaremos evidências de que o contexto social tem um papel importante na forma com que o grupo e o indivíduos se comportam. Mais precisamente, nós mostraremos que a centralidade de um indivíduo na rede social nem sempre é um bom preditor de sua contribuição quando o mesmo pode adaptar sua estratégia de busca em resposta ao contexto. Além disso, mostraremos que a adaptação ao contexto social por parte dos indivíduos pode melhorar o desempenho coletivo, facilitando a convergência para soluções boas; e que a diversidade de estratégias de resolução do problema não leva necessariamente a uma diversidade de soluções na população; e que, mesmo que o contexto social seja percebido da mesma forma pelos indivíduos, a forma com que eles reagem pode levar a diferentes resultados. Todos estes resultados suportam a ideia de que o contexto social deve ser considerado em experimentos com resolução social de problemas. Por fim, concluímos o trabalho discutindo o impactso do mesmo e apontando novos problemas a serem investigados.
Our inability to perceive and understand all the factors that account for real-world phenomena forces us to rely on clues when reasoning and making decisions about the world. Clues can be internal such as our psychological state and our motivations; or external, such as the resources available, the physical environment, the social environment, etc. The social environment, or social context, encompasses the set of relationships and cultural settings by which we interact and function in a society. Much of our thinking is influenced by the social environment and we constantly change the way we solve problems in response to our social environment. Nevertheless, this human trait has not been thoughtfully investigated by current computational models of human social problem-solving, for these models have lacked the heterogeneity and self-adaptive behavior observed in humans. In this work, we address this issue by investigating the impact of social context in social problem solving by means of extensive numerical simulations using a modified social model. We show evidences that social context plays a key role in how the system behaves and performs. More precisely, we show that the centrality of an agent in the network is an unreliable predictor the agent’s contribution when this agent can change its problem-solving strategy according to social context. Another finding is that social context information can be used to improve the convergence speed of the group to good solutions and that diversity in search strategies does not necessarily translates into diversity in solutions. We also determine that even if nodes perceive social context in same way, the way they react to it may lead to different outcomes along the search process. Together, these results contribute to the understanding that social context does indeed impact in social problem-solving. We conclude discussing the overall impact of this work and pointing future directions.

In the recent years, a new type of investments called Impact Investing has been growing rapidly. Those investments are made with the intention to improve social and/or environmental conditions in the world while generating financial returns. In this case, financial metrics are not enough to measure whether the investor objective was reached, and tools for measuring the social performance of the investments are needed. From that need, various measurement approaches were created, but the fragmentation of methods leads to a huge inefficiency in the impact investing industry. Efforts towards creating standards for measuring and reporting social performance are emerging, but there is still little understanding among impact investors about the real benefits and possible challenges the standardization would bring. In this context, an important question arises, which is the subject of study in this research: What are the potential consequences of establishing social performance standards for the impact investing industry? The purpose of this research is to analyze the possible consequences of establishing social performance standards on the impact investing industry. Qualitative approach and interpretive paradigm were chosen to be followed in this research. Primary data was collected in the form of interviews with impact investors and specialists in social performance measurement. Secondary data comes from books, articles, journals and websites. The data was analyzed using the consequences of innovations framework presented by Rogers (2003). The results suggest that obviously there are potential desirable and undesirable direct consequences, but also indirect consequences that are not perceived without a thorough analysis. Key words: Impact Investing, social performance, social performance standards, social businesses.

Background: Considering increased global challenges and societal issues, more and more people are directing skepticism towards governments' and established businesses' abilities to fully address urgent social problems. Social entrepreneurship constitutes a new entrepreneurial movement where societal issues are addressed by a combination of market-based methods and social value creation. Social entrepreneurship generates social and sustainable benefits to society and has thus received growing attention from both researchers and policy makers around the world. Social enterprises may take on varies forms, ranging from non-profit organizations to commercially driven enterprises. To focus on sustainable business models, this thesis has delimited the study to solely focus on for-profit or hybrid organizations.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe what inhibiting factors Swedish social enterprises face in scaling processes. Scaling refers to the magnitude a social business maximizes its social impact, primarily, but not limited to, through organizational growth. Furthermore, the thesis aims at explaining how social forces co-shape preconditions and actor decisions connected to scaling.     Method: To fulfil the purpose of the study, a qualitative research methodology was used. The empirical data was primarily collected through semi-structured interviews held with founders, COO’s and CEO’s from seven social enterprises in Sweden. To fully explain inhibiting factors of scaling, an abductive research approach was used with a combination of open and encouraging questions to promote discussion and develop theory.   Conclusion: The empirical findings of the study revealed a total of 14 inhibiting factors for scaling social impact in Sweden. From the findings, a development of existent theory resulted in a model illustrating the relationship between inhibiting factors, social forces and scaling social impact.

Mestrado em Econometria Aplicada e Previsão
Este documento explora o impacto do social media nos preços das ações. Para medir tal impacto, foi construído uma plataforma online na Cloud da Amazon (AWS) recorrendo a ferramentas como o R, web APIs do Twitter, Google News, Google Finance, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance e Financial Times. O objetivo deste estudo passa por criar uma base de dados para modelação com uma granularidade de 15 minutos incluindo como possíveis variáveis explicativas todas as noticias publicadas das fontes acima referidas para o Tesco e SKY. Posteriormente, recorrendo a uma técnica de GARCH multiplicativos, diversos modelos econométricos foram desenvolvidos com o objetivo de efetuar previsões a um passo dos retornos dos preços das ações acima referidos. Se efetivamente a informação do social media for relevante, deverá ser observado uma melhoria nas previsões dos retornos das ações. No decorrer do documento, será apresentado a metodologia utilizada no estudo e a sua aplicação em dados com elevada frequência. No geral, podemos concluir que a informação do social media é residualmente relevante para modelar e prever os retornos dos preços das ações e, nos modelos sem informação do Twitter, o segundo melhor modelo para o Tesco e o melhor modelo para a SKY, inclui informação do social media. No que se refere às fontes utilizadas, pode-se concluir que o Google Finance e o Financial Times relevam maior importância nos movimentos dos retornos das ações do que o Yahoo Finance e/ou Twitter, apesar de tal relevância ser muito residual e próxima de zero.
This dissertation explores the impact of social media on stock prices. In order to measure such an impact, an end-to-end online platform was created leveraging the Amazon Web Services cloud, open source R, web APIs from Twitter, Google News, Google Finance, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance and Financial Times. The end goal was to create an intraday dataset that tracks all the news related to two companies Tesco PLC, SKY PLC and then perform several econometric models using a Multiplicative GARCH model to understand if the social media news from multiple sources are statistically relevant to measure the stock prices returns and if the forecast accuracy improves by including such covariates in the predictive equations. For all of the approaches it will be presented the respective theory background and their applications to high-frequency data. Overall it can be concluded that news, past market information and tweets didn't improve that much the stocks returns models and forecasting accuracy but, for models without Twitter, Tesco's 2nd best model and SKY's best model included social media news as covariates. Google Finance and Financial Times presented better results when compared to Yahoo Finance and/or Twitter, however, overall, the impact was very residual and closer to zero.

1. Alejandro J. Journalism in the age of social media [Електронний ресурс]. – 2010. Режим доступу: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dd2d/ bfaf6d3144674951949252cea25b89c89fa8.pdf 2. Bossio D., Bebawi S. Mapping the emergence of social media in everyday journalistic practices [Електронний ресурс]. – 2013. Режим доступу: https://www. researchgate.net/publication/307550650_Mapping_the_emergence_of_social_ media_in_everyday_journalistic_practices 3. Harper R. A. The Social Media Revolution: Exploring the Impact on Journalism and News Media Organizations [Електронний ресурс]. – 2010. Режим доступу: http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/202/the-social-media-revolutionexploring-the-impact-on-journalism-and-news-media-organizations 4. Kumari N., Pradhan P. A study on Journalistic use of Social Media [Електронний ресурс]. – 2018. Режим доступу: https://amity.edu/UserFiles/asco/ journal/ISSUE68_6.%20Pitabas%20%20-%20AJMCS%20Vol%208%20No%201. pdf 5. Michel O. How social media has changed journalism [Електронний ресурс]. – 2017. Режим доступу: https://cutt.ly/xhybiaf 6. Safori A. Social Media’s Impact on a Journalist’s role [Електронний ресурс]. – 2018. Режим доступу: https://cutt.ly/uzJDGjo
In recent years, the news industry has undergone radical and irreversible changes. The reason for these metamorphoses was the expansion of social media, which forever changed the journalistic norms of the XXI century. The level of interest in social platforms and their efficiency has increased, mainly due to the Internet, which helps people around the world to stay connected.
В останні роки індустрія новин зазнала радикальних і незворотних змін. Причиною цих метаморфоз стало розширення соціальних мереж, яке назавжди змінило журналістські норми XXI століття. Рівень інтересу до соціальних платформ та їх ефективності зріс, головним чином завдяки Інтернету, який допомагає людям у всьому світі залишатися на зв'язку.

Over the last five years, England has seen a decline in the number of onshore wind applications gaining planning permission. This research investigates the key reasons renewable energy policy is stifled in the local planning system and the threat this poses to the country’s ability to tackle climate change. The research aims to show how Social Impact Assessment as part of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), could support the successful siting of onshore wind farms. Directed content analysis, examines the activities of wind developers, central government, local planning authorities, anti-wind campaigners and community energy cooperatives. The content analysis is supported using surveys and face-to-face interview with developers, action groups and community energy cooperatives. The research finds SIA is not a statutory obligation in England, yet many of its activities and processes employed by stakeholders. However, without recognition of the outcomes of SIA activity in EIA, benefits of onshore windfarm proposals are not considered in the weighting of the planning balance. The impact means local people participating in community energy projects are disempowered by the planning system to the disservice of local democracy.

L'elaborato, nella prima parte, si concentra nell'analisi della teoria economica del Social Business, inteso come nuova forma di capitalismo. Successivamente vi è l'esposizione del concetto di CSR, da utilizzare come strumento per perseguire il social business. Inoltre vi è la l'analisi del legame tra social innovation e social business. Infine sono riportati i risultati della ricerca relativa alla costruzione e all'utilizzo del social impact index su PMI italiane.

Mestrado em Ciências Empresariais
A crise económica e financeira sujeitou as organizações inseridas no Terceiro Setor a uma pressão constante no que concerne à sua viabilidade económica, perspetivando muitas semelhanças com o Segundo Setor. A falta de liquidez por parte do Estado impõe uma reestruturação das organizações sociais. Fatores como concorrência, planeamento, criatividade, inovação, e outros passam a fazer parte da agenda do dia como pontos fulcrais para o desenvolvimento das mesmas e a prossecução dos objetivos sociais. Neste contexto foi elaborado o Plano de Negócios (PN) da Associação de Apoio ao Domicílio do Recém-Nascido (A.A.D.R.N.), assumindo-o como uma ferramenta indispensável para a sua concretização: internamente utilizando esta ferramenta como forma de planeamento e avaliação de desempenho quanto à execução dos objetivos propostos e sua concretização; externamente utilizando-a junto da sociedade civil, por via da caracterização da associação, privilegiando desta forma, a relação com os stakeholders e as várias organizações inseridas no mercado do Terceiro Setor. Assim, o Plano de Negócios na AADRN foi elaborado espelhando a linha condutora da referida associação e delineando o seu rumo. O fato de a AADRN se encontrar no early stage provocou, em determinadas etapas da elaboração do PN, alguma dificuldade quanto a apresentação de dados e a sua perspetivação, no entanto, prevê-se que este gap seja colmatado nos anos subsequentes. A AADRN assume que o grande desafio deste PN será a sua aplicabilidade, com particular destaque para questões financeiras, na criação do negócio social e ainda relativamente aos recursos humanos.
The economic and financial crisis has constrained the Third Sector’s organizations at a constant pressure with regard to their economic viability, which foresees many similarities with the Second Sector. The Government’s liquidity shortage, overthrew the old model of economic stability through the subsidy dependence, which requires a restructuring of the social organizations. Factors such as competition, planning, creativity, innovation, among other, become part of the daily schedule as key issues for their development and achievement of social goals to which they that are proposed. It is in this context that was prepared the Business Plan of the Associação de Apoio ao Domicílio do Recém-Nascido (A.A.D.R.N.), assumed as an indispensable tool: internally as a way of planning and performance evaluation of the implementation of the proposed objectives and consequently achieved; externally to civil society, through the characterization of the association, favoring this way the relationship with stakeholders and the various organizations included the market of the Third Sector. Therefore, the AADRN BP was prepared in order to reflect the guiding principle of that association and to set its course. The fact that AADRN is in its early stage resulted, in certain phases of the BP elaboration, some difficulty as to the presentation of data and its perspective. However, it is expected that this gap will be bridged in subsequent years. The AADRN assumes that the great challenge of this BP will be its applicability, with particular emphasis on financial matters, in the creation of social business and also for human resources.

The thesis examines motivation behind the website social impact reporting practices of 102 social enterprises operating across 29 countries. To identify the motivation which determines the level and quality of disclosure, the thesis has applied stakeholder and collaboration theories to test the impact of board independence and collaborations with other organisations on disclosures. By using multiple regression analyses, the thesis has found that collaborations and board independence influence the quality and extent of disclosure at a significant level.

Mestrado em Ciências Empresariais
O contexto socioeconómico português dos últimos dez anos levou à emergência das organizações do Terceiro Sector, bem como ao aumento do número de projetos de âmbito social, no sentido de dar uma resposta adequada e eficiente às lacunas sociais cada vez mais complexas. Por conseguinte, tem surgido a necessidade de demonstrar e comunicar o Valor Social gerado para o exterior no que respeita à implementação destes mesmos projetos. Uma vez que falamos de projetos de âmbito social, a questão que se coloca é: como medir ou quantificar o valor económico destes projetos? Este estudo tenciona perceber se é medido este valor junto das organizações, quais as suas limitações e demonstrar o potencial da aplicação da metodologia SROI ? Social Return On Investment para a avaliação e medição do desempenho da gestão das organizações do Terceiro Sector e seus projetos.
In the last ten years the Portuguese socio-economic context led to the need of third sector organizations and increased the number of social projects that provide adequate and efficient responses to complex social gaps. Consequently, there has been the necessity to demonstrate and communicate the social value generated to the outside of these organizations during the implementation of the projects. By talking about projects with a social context the question that arises is how to measure or quantify the economic value of these projects. Hence, the presented study helps to understand how organizations measure this value but also demonstrates the limitations and the potential of the applicability of the methodology SROI - Social Return On Investment for evaluating and measuring the management performance of third sector organizations and their projects.

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the influences of industry dynamic factors (e.g., peer selections) on a client’s subsequent decision to select the type of auditor (e.g., Big N versus non-Big N), following auditor turnover. More specifically, drawing on social norms and social learning theories, I develop testable implications and investigate whether and how industry dynamics have an incremental power in explaining auditor choice beyond traditional firm-specific variables documented in prior research. Using a large sample from years 1988 – 2012, I find that clients are more likely to imitate their industry peers’ prior selections to select the type of their succeeding auditors, consistent with the implications of social learning theory. I also find that clients in industries with stronger industry norms, as measured by a greater proportion of clients audited by Big N auditors in an industry, are more likely to select Big N auditors as their succeeding auditors, consistent with the implications of social norms theory. To my best knowledge, this is the first study to explore the impact of social dynamics measured at the industry level on auditor selection and provide large-sample evidence on the relations between industry dynamics and auditor selection at the firm level. Findings of this study provide insights into the dynamic process of auditor selection in which companies do not make auditor-selection decisions in isolation of one another as often posited in existing literature, contribute to the research on the determinants of auditor choice by incorporating industry dynamics into an agent-principal model, and provide a more comprehensive view of the phenomenon of auditor selection.

L’esclusione sociale comporta delle conseguenze negative per il benessere degli individui, soprattutto se questa persiste nel tempo e nei vari contesti di vita. La letteratura converge nell’identificare il ritiro psicologico e comportamentale come la diretta e inevitabile conseguenza dell’esclusione sociale cronica (Williams, 2009; Smart Richman & Leary, 2009). Ricerche preliminari hanno confermato che le persone vittime di esclusione sociale persistente tendono a sviluppare uno stato mentale di rassegnazione, caratterizzata da sentimenti di depressione, alienazione, mancanza di autostima e di speranza nel futuro. Tuttavia, la letteratura è carente di chiare evidenze empiriche sul legame univoco tra esclusione sociale cronica e lo sviluppo della rassegnazione o sui potenziali fattori che possono influenzare lo sviluppo delle conseguenze a lungo termine dell’esclusione sociale. Il presente progetto di ricerca ha come obiettivo quello di indagare lo sviluppo della rassegnazione nei migranti, in particolare richiedenti asilo e rifugiati, che sono costantemente esposti a fenomeni di esclusione sociale. Inoltre, gli studi di questo progetto indagano il ruolo delle connessioni sociali con la popolazione della società ospitante e con altri migranti nel moderare lo sviluppo della rassegnazione. In cinque studi, questo progetto fornisce chiare evidenze che le connessioni con la popolazione nazionale proteggono dall’insorgenza della rassegnazione, mentre le connessioni con altri migranti ne aggravano il suo sviluppo. Il primo studio presenta risultati correlazionali preliminari a supporto di questo modello di risultati, focalizzandosi su un campione di richiedenti asilo ospitati all’interno di centri di accoglienza in Italia. Il secondo studio fornisce un replica dei risultati su un ampio campione di studenti, immigrati di prima generazione in quattro Paesi europei. Il terzo studio presenta dei risultati longitudinali che mostrano il legame causale dell’esclusione sociale nell’indurre la rassegnazione, sottolineando come questo avvenga in un arco temporale di sei mesi. Il quarto studio mostra come l’incremento delle connessioni con gli italiani e con gli altri migranti rispettivamente prevengano e aggravino lo sviluppo della rassegnazione nel tempo. Infine, il quinto studio presenta risultati sperimentali che estendono l’influenza delle connessioni tra gruppi sociali anche sulle immediato impatto emotivo dell’esclusione sociale, coinvolgendo sia migranti richiedenti asilo e rifugiati che migranti economici. Gli studi presentati arricchiscono la letteratura esistente, mostrando l’esitenza di fattori intervenienti che articolano il nesso causale tra esclusione e rassegnazione. Questa ricerca contribuisce alla comprensione dell’impatto dell’esclusione sociale nei migranti, enfatizzando i benefici delle connessioni con la popolazione nazionale e i rischi della segregazione sociale.
Social exclusion has detrimental consequences on humans’ health, especially if experienced pervasively and persistently over time. The literature converges in identifying psychological resignation and behavioral withdrawal as the sole and inescapable consequences of chronic social exclusion (Williams, 2009; Smart Richman & Leary, 2009). Preliminary research supported that people experiencing persistent exclusion are likely to enter the resignation stage, characterized by feelings of depression, alienation, unworthiness, and helplessness. However, firm evidence of this univocal link and the potential factors influencing the development of the long-term consequences of social exclusion is still lacking. The current project investigated the onset of the resignation stage in immigrants, particularly asylum-seekers and refugees who are persistently exposed to episodes of social exclusion. This project also focused on the role of intergroup social connections with the national majority and other immigrants minorities in moderating the development of the resignation. Five studies showed that social connections with the national group protected from the onset of the resignation stage, whereas connections with other immigrants aggravated it. Study 1 provided cross-sectional evidence of this pattern of results focusing on asylum-seekers hosted within welcoming centers in Italy. Study 2 replicated the findings on a larger sample of first-generation immigrant students in four European countries. Study 3 provided longitudinal causal evidence that social exclusion led to the resignation stage in a temporal framework of six months. Study 4 longitudinally replicated the moderating role of intergroup connections. Lastly, Study 5 experimentally supported the relevance of intergroup connections for the immediate emotional responses to social exclusion in forced and voluntary immigrants. The studies enriched the existing literature emphasizing that intervening factors can moderate the causal exclusion-resignation link. Furthermore, the current project contributed to understanding the impact of social exclusion in immigrants, highlighting the health benefits of bridging connections and the risk of societal segregation.

Ao longo do tempo atribuiu-se a geração de valor econômico-financeiro às organizações empresariais atuantes no mercado das relações capitalistas e a geração de valor social às organizações do terceiro setor. Essa aparente dualidade vem sendo questionada no âmbito do empreendedorismo, provocando o surgimento do fenômeno do investimento de impacto como uma alternativa que possibilita a alocação de capital em iniciativas e empreendimentos, os chamados negócios sociais, que visam criar impacto social positivo acompanhado de retorno financeiro. A emergência de investidores e empreendedores de negócios sociais tem provocado polêmicas e reflexões acerca da avaliação de impacto, da taxa de retorno do investimento de impacto e também de conceitos essenciais para fundamentar as operações de investimento, como valor social e impacto socioambiental. Neste cenário, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar as percepções dos diferentes grupos de atores do ecossistema brasileiro de negócios sociais e investimento de impacto sobre esses temas e sobre suas experiências no setor - desafios, oportunidades e aprendizados. Foi desenhada uma pesquisa exploratória de abordagem qualitativa, cujo problema de investigação foi o levantamento de opiniões, percepções e expectativas de representantes de três grupos de atores desse ecossistema: investidores interessados em negócios sociais; empreendedores e executivos de negócios sociais; e representantes de organizações intermediárias, como aceleradoras e fundos de investimento. A partir da construção de um referencial teórico e da análise de dados secundários sobre o fenômeno estudado, realizou-se o levantamento de dados primários aplicando-se um roteiro para entrevista semiestruturada em uma amostra intencional composta por dezoito pessoas. A análise das respostas evidenciou que há uma grande diversidade de entendimentos sobre o conceito de valor social e que alguns entrevistados tendem a usar esse termo como sinônimo de impacto social. A maioria dos entrevistados ressaltou elementos relacionados ao acesso à educação, aos serviços de saúde e aos direitos de cidadania. Mas nenhum se referiu à gestão de resíduos sólidos como elemento gerador de valor social. Talvez por se tratar de empreendimentos relativamente recentes, não foi possível identificar em que grau os investidores de impacto estão contribuindo para que esses negócios potencializem a geração de valor social aos beneficiários finais. No entanto, todos os negócios sociais que receberam investimento de impacto afirmaram que os investidores estão contribuindo para o desenvolvimento de seus negócios. Sobre a taxa de retorno do investimento, as opiniões dos entrevistados divergiram, mas a maioria deles entende que, no médio e longo prazo, as taxas de retorno deveriam seguir as taxas médias de mercado. A avaliação de impacto pré-investimento ainda é mais aproximativa do que baseada em indicadores de impacto social, porém todos os atores dos grupos de oferta de capital e demanda de capital que receberam investimento afirmaram que a geração de valor social é monitorada pelos investidores após o aporte de recursos. Os principais desafios apontados foram o acesso e o volume de capital, as restrições próprias do contexto econômico brasileiro e a imaturidade do setor. Todos consideram, porém, que o setor de negócios sociais e os investimentos de impacto têm futuro promissor no Brasil, seja pela necessidade de resolução dos inúmeros problemas sociais e ambientais, seja pelo tamanho do mercado de potenciais beneficiários dessas iniciativas. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho espera contribuir para o avanço teórico e prático das questões e dilemas enfrentados pelo empreendedorismo social e pelo setor de investimento de impacto, bem como para fomentar o ecossistema brasileiro de Finanças Sociais.
Commonly, the creation of economic and financial value has been attributed to companies acting in the capitalist market relations while the creation of social value has been attributed to third sector organizations. This seeming duality is being questioned in the light of entrepreneurship, causing the emergence of the impact investing phenomenon as an alternative that allows capital to be allocated to initiatives and ventures, the so-called social businesses, which aim to create positive social impact together with financial returns. The rise of investors and entrepreneurs of social businesses has caused controversies and reflections about the impact evaluation, the rate of return for impact investments, and also the core concepts that support investment operations, such as social value and socio-environmental impact. In this scenario, this study aimed to analyze the perceptions of different groups of actors within the Brazilian social business and impact investing ecosystem related to these themes and their experiences in the sector - challenges, opportunities, and learnings. An exploratory research of qualitative approach has been designed, which research problem was a survey of opinions, perceptions and expectations of representatives of three groups of actors of this ecosystem: investors interested in social businesses; entrepreneurs and executives from social businesses; and representatives from intermediary organizations, such as accelerators and investment funds. Based on the construction of a theoretical framework and the analysis of secondary data on the studied phenomenon, a primary research has been conducted applying a script for semi-structured interview in an intentional sample of eighteen people. The analysis of the answers showed that there is a great diversity of understandings about the concept of social value and that some interviewees tend to use this term as a synonym for social impact. Most of the interviewees highlighted elements related to access to education, health services, and citizenship rights. But none of them referred to the solid waste management as a generator of social value. Perhaps because these are relatively recent ventures, it was not possible to identify the extent to which impact investors are contributing to the growth of social value creation to the final beneficiaries. However, all social businesses that received impact investments stated that investors are contributing to the development of their businesses. Regarding the rate of return on investment, the respondents\' opinions diverged, but most of them understood that, in the medium and long term, rates of return should follow average market rates. The pre-investment impact evaluation is still more approximate than based on social impact metrics, but all actors from the groups of investors and of social businesses which received investments stated that the generation of social value is monitored by investors after capital contribution. The main challenges are the access and volume of capital, the constraints of the Brazilian economic context, and the immaturity of the sector. However, all of them consider that the social business sector and impact investments have a promising future in Brazil, whether due to the need to solve the numerous social and environmental problems or due to the size of the market of potential beneficiaries of these initiatives. In this sense, this work hopes to contribute to the theoretical and practical advancement of the issues and dilemmas faced by the social entrepreneurship and the impact investment sector, as well as to foster the Brazilian Social Finance ecosystem.

This social marketing evaluation project explores how a research and industry partnership can develop an approach to evaluation to understand the social impact of health promotion intervention. This thesis proposes the need for a participatory approach to Social Impact Assessment (SIA). Specifically, this research project sought to understand: first, how social impact is considered and measured with health promotion interventions in four comparable Commonwealth contexts (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom); and second, how an Australian NGO may (or may not be) delivering social impact within health promotion and how an SIA assessment may add insight into social impact measurement within health promotion. This research implemented the SIA methodology of Social Return on Investment (SROI) to evaluate the social impact of an NGO Health Promotion program aiming to help children make safe and healthy life choices (Lane & Devin, 2018; McHugh, Domegan, & Duane, 2018). While a Theory of Change (ToC) or program logic is essential for effective measurement of the outcomes or effects of interventions (Breuer, Lee, De Silva, & Lund, 2016; Hamdani et al., 2021; Meiksin et al., 2021), as a standalone process it is insufficient to understand the intricacies of social change. To understand intervention mechanisms of behaviour change—where and how social change (has or has not occurred)—there is a need to implement a measurement process that captures the broader social and economic determinants of health. These wider determinants extend beyond the current linear outcome focus of ToC, which shows a sequential approach to behaviour change along a social impact chain or program logic (Mayne, 2015; McHugh et al., 2018). This thesis proposes a participatory approach to SIA enabling a reflexive approach to evaluation that allows a deeper understanding of the complexities of how children make healthy life choices. Furthermore, a participatory approach enables program outcomes and evaluation to accurately attribute long-term behaviour change to interventions (Arkesteijn, Van Mierlo, & Leeuwis, 2015). Achieving reflexivity in SIA requires a relational approach to stakeholder engagement, which is often non-linear and iterative, throughout the program or intervention (Esponda et al., 2021; Lane & Devin, 2018; Missonier, 2014). Accordingly, this research highlighted the need to close the gap between theoretical and practitioner knowledge and application. Consequently, two processes should be embedded into intervention design, implementation, and measurement for social impact to be effectively measured in behaviour change interventions. The first is theory use, since theories may extend program outcomes by focusing on constructs known to cause specific behaviours (Abraham et al., 2015; Hardeman et al., 2005; Michie et al., 2011). The second process is deepening essential stakeholder involvement throughout interventions (Dabravolskaj et al., 2020; Hurley, Dietrich, & Rundle-Thiele, 2019) to understand the value of improved health behaviours and outcomes for school community stakeholders such as students, schools, and parental school communities. Subsequently, the fundamental motivation of this thesis was: To examine social impact within primary school health promotion interventions from design to evaluation and understand the role of Social Impact Assessment in contributing to more effective behaviour change interventions within health promotion. A systematic review was conducted, which sought to examine the role of social impact assessment within primary school health promotion interventions. This review considered four comparable Commonwealth countries, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, and aimed to answer the following research question: To what extent has the social impact been considered and evaluated in health promotion interventions in primary school contexts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom? The review found 77 studies representing 55 health promotion interventions delivered in primary school settings. Only eight (15%) measured or attempted to measure the social impact of these interventions, while another eight (15%) alluded to social impact. The prevailing theories reported were social-based theories (theories which examine the social influences on people, environments, and behaviours) (n = 17, 59%), and almost a third of interventions were not informed by an overt health promotion framework or model (n = 34, 59%). A systematic rating system was applied to identify stakeholder engagement (n = 30, 53%). The review highlighted the lack of social impact measurement within health promotion and indicated that social impact is poorly understood in the reviewed academic literature. Study 2 was a Social Return on Investment (SROI) Baseline, which measured the social impact of two NGO Health Promotion modules. This study examined the strengths and limitations of applying social impact measurement within a primary school health promotion intervention. The second research question asked how the application of an SIA, specifically an SROI, contributes insights into the strengths and limitations of social impact measurement within a specific primary school health promotion context. This question explored the theoretical and practical insights social impact assessment (SIA) contributes to estimating social impact within a particular context—specifically, two health promotion modules delivered by [redacted] ([redacted]). The purpose was to apply SIA to understand what community benefits (if any) can be derived from health promotion program delivery, and assess what outcomes and social impact could reasonably be expected from a 90-minute health education module. Although study 2’s findings indicated the strengths of applying an SIA to health promotion, specifically, Social Return on Investments (SROI), there is still a long way to go in both theory and application. The SROI conducted on the two modules demonstrated a positive social impact for the two 90-minute modules. However, this effect dropped off over time. Overall, this research contributes to bridging the divide between academic and practitioner-informed behaviour change interventions. Notwithstanding its predominant health promotion focus, the theoretical parallels and convergences with social marketing are considered, suggesting implications for more robust theory-informed health promotion interventions. This thesis proposes an iterative participatory process involving key stakeholders as salient to the provision of evidence beyond intervention outputs and outcomes. To measure the social impact of an intervention beyond nominal indicators requires a shift in what is measured within behaviour change interventions—individual determinants—to the broader social and economic determinants of health. From a practitioner perspective, key stakeholders must be involved in longer-duration interventions from design through implementation and evaluation. This thesis advocates for a better understanding of social impact relevant to applied settings to more clearly evidence the value of behaviour change interventions demonstrating beyond doubt how ‘wicked problems’ are reduced.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Dept of Marketing
Griffith Business School
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This thesis explores the relationship between social capital and conflict in two different contexts, by answering the following two questions: How does exposure to violence affect social capital in urban Maharashtra, India? How does returning home affect social capital amongst internally displaced persons and returnees from Nahr el Bared camp in North Lebanon? This thesis then goes on to look at the labour market implications of returning home to Nahr el Bared camp, exploring the role of social capital (amongst other mechanisms) in this relationship. The following paragraphs are abstracts from the three empirical chapters that address these questions. The first empirical chapter explores the relationship between exposure to riots and social capital in urban Maharashtra. We exploit a panel dataset collected by the authors and apply a random effects model with lagged covariates to estimate an exogenous relationship between neighbourhood exposure to riots and four forms of social capital: membership in a group or organisation, trust in neighbours, participation in community discussions and participation in community festival preparations. Consistent with Bellows and Miguel's study of conflict and social capital (2009), we find that households living in neighbourhoods that experienced a riot are more likely to be members of groups and organisations. On the other hand, we find that these households are less likely to join community discussions, which lends more to the hypothesis of fragmented post-conflict societies with a damaged social fabric (Colletta and Cullen, 2000). We explore various mechanisms behind these results and find that the increased membership in organisations is greatest in diverse neighbourhoods that have not experienced recent changes in composition. However, riots reduce trust and the likelihood of participation in fragmented and polarised riot-affected neighbourhoods. Riots also decrease participation in festival preparations in neighbourhoods where out-migration has been low. Our analysis suggests that individuals and households instrumentally use social capital to their advantage, a type of insurance to protect against potential communal violence in the future. However, riots can have adverse affects on different forms of social capital that go beyond the surface level of social networking to feelings of trust and sense of community. The second empirical chapter studies the effect of returning home after conflict induced displacement on social capital, compared to remaining displaced. I have collected a household survey of displaced Palestinians from a refugee camp in Lebanon, and this chapter assesses the impact of return on the different dimensions of social capital based on a diverse and rich set of questions. An instrumental variable is used to model the return decision in one part of the camp, and the exogenous nature of return is exploited in another section of the camp. Results show that return can improve social capital if households return within one year of the war ending and with their friends and family. If households have been displaced for too long, then social capital is decreased upon returning home. This indicates that social capital is not simply carried over from displacement to return, but is rebuilt in a process that takes time and effort. The third and final empirical chapter studies the effect of returning home on labour market outcomes. Theoretically the effect of return is ambiguous, depending on changes in both the demand and supply of labour. I empirically study the effect of return on four labour market outcomes: participation in the labour force, working, wages and number of days worked. I analyse a dataset of individuals originally from Nahr el-Bared camp in North Lebanon, displaced within Lebanon after a war in 2007 between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam. I use an instrumental variable and exploit the exogenous nature of the return process in order to estimate a causal effect of return. The results show that return increases the likelihood of working by 117 percentage points. This effect is greatest for those who have returned within two years, reaping the benefits of greater aggregate demand as the market increases. Women returnees are more likely to be working compared to the displaced, but there is no difference in employment between men who have been displaced and those who have returned. This could be because women possess skills that are adaptable in labour markets, working in cottage type industries from home, as opposed to the more specialised skills that men tend to possess.

Mestrado em Gestão de Sistemas de Informação
O aumento da popularidade das redes sociais e a utilização do Comércio Eletrónico deram origem a um novo modelo de negócios denominado Social Commerce (SC). SC envolve o uso de tecnologias Web 2.0 que possibilitam a interação dos utilizadores, facilitando a venda e compra online de produtos e serviços. A necessidade de entender o comportamento dos utilizadores do Social Commerce tem vindo a ser sugerida por autores académicos na área dos Sistemas de Informação (SI). Além disso, tendo em consideração que a pandemia COVID-19 afetou o comportamento online dos consumidores, torna-se importante analisar seu papel na intenção e uso efetivo de uma tecnologia. Para tal, a segunda versão da Teoria Unificada de Aceitação e Uso de Tecnologia (UTAUT2) foi adaptada a fim de determinar quais fatores impactam a intenção e uso do Social Commerce. Neste contexto, construtos adicionais foram identificados, tendo em consideração o contexto pandémico atual. Foi realizada uma análise quantitativa, a partir de dados recolhidos de uma amostra de 209 inquiridos. O software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences e a abordagem Partial Least Squares (PLS) foram utilizadas para avaliar o modelo conceptual. Os resultados deste estudo revelaram que os construtos Hábito, Motivação Hedónica, Expectativa de Desempenho e Construtos do Social Commerce são significativos na formação da intenção comportamental e uso do SC. Também a pandemia revelou ter impacto na frequência de utilização do SC, sendo o construto Falta de Alternativas Percebida, um determinante na intenção de uso desta tecnologia.
The increased popularity of social networking sites and the establishment of Electronic Commerce has given rise to a new business model entitled Social Commerce (SC). SC involves using Web 2.0 social media technologies that support users' interactions, facilitating the online selling and acquisition of products and services. SC is increasingly attracting the attention of academic researchers within the Information Systems (IS) field, being implicit a need to understand SC users' behavior. Additionally, since the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted consumers online behavior, it becomes important to analyze its role in the intention and usage of a technology. To investigate this aspect, the second version of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) was extended in order to determinate which factors impact Behavioral Intention and Use of Social Commerce. For that, additional determinants in Social Commerce acceptance and adoption were identified, taking in consideration the COVID-19 pandemic context. A quantitative approach was conducted, based on data collected from a sample of 209 respondents and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences and Partial Least Squares (PLS) path modeling were used to assess the model. The study results showed that Habit, Hedonic Motivation, Performance Expectancy, Social Commerce Constructs are significant in the formation of Behavioral Intention and Use of SC. This study findings also revealed that the pandemic had impacted the frequency of use of SC, being the Perceived Lack of Alternatives a determinant in the intention to use SC.
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The changing political environment continues to have a significant impact on the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS). In a climate with fewer available resources, it is crucial that VCS organisations can demonstrate the value they create to secure the necessary funding for the continuation of services. Proving our Value was a four-year Big Lottery funded project coordinated by the South West Forum, which aimed to improve the understanding of impact created through VCS interventions. The project incorporated five separate case studies. Each case study involved a research partnership between the academic researchers and staff from a voluntary and community organisation. The University of Bristol Capacity Building Cluster provided a three-year Case PhD research student to work alongside the POV project. The objectives of the research were two-fold: first, to support the SWF in better understanding the impact created by social purpose organisations across the case studies, and second, to understand how appropriate impact methodologies can be developed to evidence the value of VCS interventions. However, it was also intended that the student could use the study to develop an academic thesis and make a theoretical contribution to academic research in this area. Common themes were drawn across the five case studies, through an ongoing process of Action Research, to understand the research approaches that work most appropriately for VCS organisations. The Action Research strategy was designed to gather data for critical reflection to develop theory, reviewing how each research methodology developed organically and iteratively during the lifetime of each case study. The Action Research approach was complemented by drawing on Critical Realist ontology and enquiring more deeply into the underlying generative mechanisms, organisational structures and context to explain why particular methodologies may be appropriate.

This dissertation examines perceptions of purpose in family foundations and the impact of differences in those perceptions on family foundation board composition/function and on grant making activities. One of the primary decisions facing the donor who creates a private foundation relates to governance. Here, the donor arguably faces a deeply personal choice: to what extent should the donor’s family be involved? Related to this choice is the question of the degree of focus on the mission-related aspects of the organization or the family-related aspects of the organization. This dissertation explores whether family foundation trustees view family purposes and social impact purposes as meaningful for the foundation they represent and whether trustees differ with regard to the degree to which they emphasize one or the other. If family foundation trustees do meaningfully differ in this regard, what difference does an emphasis on family or social impact purposes make on board composition, grant making focus and stability, similarity to one’s peers, and other factors? Through a combination of survey, interview, and review of publicly available material, this dissertation explores this question for a sample of family foundation trustees in two Midwestern states. Eugene Tempel, Ph.D., Co-Chair Leslie Lenkowsky, Ph.D., Co-Chair

Tutte le organizzazioni hanno un impatto che riguarda l'economia, la società e l'ambiente naturale. Gli studi accademici di diversi filoni di ricerca (ad business and society studies, accounting, strategic management) propongono diverse definizioni di "impatto sociale" (Latane, 1981; Burdge & Vanclay, 1996;. Emerson et al, 2000;. Clark et al, 2004 ). Tutte queste definizioni descrivono, in modo più o meno esplicito, il concetto di "cambiamento", essendo basati sulla “teoria del cambiamento” (Weiss, 1972; Anderson, 2004) - vale a dire, il cambiamento che un'organizzazione può produrre nel modo di vivere delle persone, nella cultura, personale nelle aspirazioni, ma anche rispetto alla comunità, ai sistemi politici, l'ambiente, la salute e il benessere. La misurazione dell’impatto sociale conduce l'organizzazione a considerare i cambiamenti prodotti sugli stakeholders come risultato di una serie di rapporti causa-effetto proposteidalla teoria del cambiamento. L'obiettivo della misurazione dell’impatto sociale è quindi di capire, in termini sociali, ambientali ed economici, i cambiamenti che si sono verificati nella vita delle parti interessate, a causa di attività di organizzazioni, al fine di comunicarlo (Nicholls et al, 2009). Nonostante il crescente interesse sulla misurazione dell'impatto sociale, la produzione accademica sull'argomento è ancora scarsa. La presente tesi contribuisce alla discussione in corso, concentrandosi sulla teoria, i concetti e strumenti per misurare l'impatto sociale. In particolare, due contesti di analisi sono presi in considerazione: la finanza etica e l'educazione all'imprenditorialità. La tesi si compone di tre articoli. La prima ricerca vuole fornire una revisione della letteratura sul tema della misurazione dell'impatto sociale nel contesto della finanza etica, il secondo articolo è una ricerca-azione su una metodologia per misurare l'impatto sociale delle banche etiche sviluppata attraverso lo studio del caso estremo di Banca Popolare Etica, e la terza ricerca riguarda il contesto della formazione imprenditoriale e mira a studiare l'impatto di un programma MBA sugli antecedenti dell’intenzione all'imprenditorialità di studenti in Ghana. Più in dettaglio, il primo documento è intitolato " Review of impact assessment methodologies for ethical finance ". Questo documento fornisce una rassegna completa della letteratura sulla misurazione dell'impatto sociale nelle banche etiche. In particolare, si discute l'approccio delle banche etiche all’impatto sociale e alla misurazione dell'impatto sociale considerando diversi studi e analisi, poi proponendo un elenco di indicatori e outcomes da utilizzare per evidenziare l'impatto sociale delle attività delle banche etiche. Si segnalano, inoltre, alcune lacune nella letteratura che abbiamo posto come questioni aperte per la ricerca futura. La ricerca è stata portata avanti con due partner: la Fédération Européenne des Banques et Ethiques Alternative (FEBEA) e l’Institute of Social banks (ISB). Il titolo della seconda ricerca è: " Measurement of social impact in financial institutions: the case of Banca Popolare Etica ". Si tratta di una ricerca-azione su una metodologia per misurare l'impatto sociale delle banche etiche, fondata sul caso di studio di Banca Popolare Etica. Usiamo un set di dati composto da 1.385 organizzazioni e 1324 individui, beneficiari dei finanziamenti, per studiare la misurazione dell'impatto sociale dei progetti finanziati. Integrando in un unico processo di valutazione (sia quantitative che qualitative) diverse metodologie generalmente utilizzate singolarmente per la misurazione di impatto sociale (Social Return on Investment (SROI), Impact Reporting Investment Standards (IRIS) e storytelling), il caso mostra come i limiti tradizionali di metodologie per misurare l'impatto sociale possono essere superati. Il terzo e ultimo studio è intitolato " Does entrepreneurial education impact on antecedents of entrepreneurial intention? An analysis of an Entrepreneurship MBA in Ghana". Questo studio ha lo scopo di analizzare gli effetti di un programma di educazione all'imprenditorialità, sugli antecedenti dell'intenzione imprenditoriale di studenti in un paese in via di sviluppo. Lo studio analizza i risultati di una ricerca di impatto eseguita con partecipanti di uno specifico programma di formazione all'imprenditorialità: il "E4impact MBA", tenuto dal l'Istituto Cattolico di Business and Technology - CIBT in Accra, Ghana. Il metodo misto impiegato, era un approccio esplicativo (Creswell, Plano Clark et al, 2003), con un disegno quasi-sperimentale (Cohen e Manion, 1989) con test pre e post e misure di cambiamento auto-percepito. Abbiamo valutato i cambiamenti nelle caratteristiche psicologiche imprenditoriali (Need for achievement, Self-efficacy, Locus of control; Risk taking propensity; Tolerance for ambiguity) e competenze e conoscenze personali (Creatività, Conoscenza, Flessibilità, Networking e analisi) sul modello esteso della Teoria del Comportamento Pianificato. L'analisi mostra che il programma di educazione all'imprenditorialità ha un forte impatto sugli antecedenti psicologici e cognitivi delle intenzioni imprenditoriali. Quindi, la partecipazione al programma di educazione all'imprenditorialità può influenzare positivamente le intenzioni imprenditoriali degli studenti e il controllo comportamentale percepito sostenendo l'idea che le università hanno un ruolo fondamentale nel plasmare e promuovere le intenzioni imprenditoriali e le abilità attraverso programmi di formazione all'imprenditorialità.
All organizations have impacts that affect economy, society and the natural environment. Academics from different streams of research (i.e. business and society studies, accounting, strategic management) propose several definitions of “social impact” (Latané, 1981; Burdge & Vanclay, 1996; Emerson et al., 2000; Clark et al., 2004). All these definitions describe, more or less explicitly, the concept of “change”, being each one based on the Theory of Change (Weiss, 1972; Anderson, 2004) – i.e., the change that an organization can produce in people’s way of life, culture, personal and property rights, fears and aspirations, but also with respect to community, political systems, environment, health and wellbeing. The measurement of social impact leads the organization to consider the changes on stakeholders as a result of the set of cause-effect relations proposed by the theory of change. The objective of social impact measurement thus is to understand, in social, environmental and economic terms, changes that have occurred in stakeholders’ lives because of organizations activities, in order to communicate it (Nicholls et al, 2009). Despite a growing interest on social impact measurement, academic production in the topic is still scarce. The present Ph.D. thesis contributes to the ongoing discussion by focusing on the theory, concepts and tools to measure social impact. In particular, two context of analysis are at issue: ethical finance and entrepreneurship education. The work consists of three papers. The first research wants to provide a review of the literature on the issue of measuring the social impact in the context of ethical finance, the second paper is an action research on a methodology for measuring the social impact of ethical banks developed through the extreme case study of Banca Popolare Etica, and the third research concerns the context of entrepreneurial education and aims at studying the impact of an MBA program on the antecedents of entrepreneurship intention of students in Ghana. More in details, the first paper is entitled “Review of impact assessment methodologies for ethical finance”. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature on measuring the social impact in ethical banks. Specifically, we discuss the approach of ethical banks to social impact and social impact measurement considering several studies and frameworks of analysis, then proposing a list of indicators and outcomes to be used to highlight the social impact of ethical banks’ activities. We also point out some gaps in the literature that we left as questions open for future research. The research was carried on with two partners: the Fédération Européenne des Banques Ethiques et Alternatives (FEBEA) and the Institute of Social banks (ISB). The title of the second paper is: “Measurement of social impact in financial institutions: the case of Banca Popolare Etica”. This is an action research on a methodology for measuring the social impact of ethical banks, grounded on the case study of Banca Popolare Etica. We use a dataset of 1,385 organizations and 1,324 individuals, recipients of funding, to study the measurement of the social impact of the projects funded. Integrating in a single assessment process (both quantitative and qualitative) various methodologies generally singularly used for the measurement of social impact (Social Return on Investment (SROI), Impact Reporting Investment Standards (IRIS) and storytelling), the case shows how the traditional limitations of methodologies to measure social impact can be overcome. The third and last study is entitled “Does entrepreneurial education impact on antecedents of entrepreneurial intention? An analysis of an Entrepreneurship MBA in Ghana”. This study has the aim to analyze the effects of an entrepreneurship education program, on the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention of students in a developing country. The study analyzes the results of an impact research conducted with participants to a specific entrepreneurship education program: the “E4impact MBA”, held by the Catholic Institute of Business and Technology – CIBT in Accra, Ghana. The mixed method design employed, was an explanatory approach (Creswell, Plano Clark et al., 2003) with a quasi-experimental design (Cohen and Manion, 1989) featuring both pre-post tests and self-perceived change measures. We assessed changes in entrepreneurial psychological characteristics (Need for achievement, Self-efficacy, Locus of control; Risk taking propensity; Tolerance for ambiguity) and personal skills and knowlwdge (Creativity, Knowledge, Flexibility, Networking and Analysis) following the extended model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The analysis shows that the entrepreneurship education program has a strong impact on psychological and cognitive antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions. That is, participation in entrepreneurship education program can positively influence students’ entrepreneurial intentions and perceived behavioral control supporting the idea that universities have a key role in shaping and fostering entrepreneurial intentions and abilities through entrepreneurship education program.

Tutte le organizzazioni hanno un impatto che riguarda l'economia, la società e l'ambiente naturale. Gli studi accademici di diversi filoni di ricerca (ad business and society studies, accounting, strategic management) propongono diverse definizioni di "impatto sociale" (Latane, 1981; Burdge & Vanclay, 1996;. Emerson et al, 2000;. Clark et al, 2004 ). Tutte queste definizioni descrivono, in modo più o meno esplicito, il concetto di "cambiamento", essendo basati sulla “teoria del cambiamento” (Weiss, 1972; Anderson, 2004) - vale a dire, il cambiamento che un'organizzazione può produrre nel modo di vivere delle persone, nella cultura, personale nelle aspirazioni, ma anche rispetto alla comunità, ai sistemi politici, l'ambiente, la salute e il benessere. La misurazione dell’impatto sociale conduce l'organizzazione a considerare i cambiamenti prodotti sugli stakeholders come risultato di una serie di rapporti causa-effetto proposteidalla teoria del cambiamento. L'obiettivo della misurazione dell’impatto sociale è quindi di capire, in termini sociali, ambientali ed economici, i cambiamenti che si sono verificati nella vita delle parti interessate, a causa di attività di organizzazioni, al fine di comunicarlo (Nicholls et al, 2009). Nonostante il crescente interesse sulla misurazione dell'impatto sociale, la produzione accademica sull'argomento è ancora scarsa. La presente tesi contribuisce alla discussione in corso, concentrandosi sulla teoria, i concetti e strumenti per misurare l'impatto sociale. In particolare, due contesti di analisi sono presi in considerazione: la finanza etica e l'educazione all'imprenditorialità. La tesi si compone di tre articoli. La prima ricerca vuole fornire una revisione della letteratura sul tema della misurazione dell'impatto sociale nel contesto della finanza etica, il secondo articolo è una ricerca-azione su una metodologia per misurare l'impatto sociale delle banche etiche sviluppata attraverso lo studio del caso estremo di Banca Popolare Etica, e la terza ricerca riguarda il contesto della formazione imprenditoriale e mira a studiare l'impatto di un programma MBA sugli antecedenti dell’intenzione all'imprenditorialità di studenti in Ghana. Più in dettaglio, il primo documento è intitolato " Review of impact assessment methodologies for ethical finance ". Questo documento fornisce una rassegna completa della letteratura sulla misurazione dell'impatto sociale nelle banche etiche. In particolare, si discute l'approccio delle banche etiche all’impatto sociale e alla misurazione dell'impatto sociale considerando diversi studi e analisi, poi proponendo un elenco di indicatori e outcomes da utilizzare per evidenziare l'impatto sociale delle attività delle banche etiche. Si segnalano, inoltre, alcune lacune nella letteratura che abbiamo posto come questioni aperte per la ricerca futura. La ricerca è stata portata avanti con due partner: la Fédération Européenne des Banques et Ethiques Alternative (FEBEA) e l’Institute of Social banks (ISB). Il titolo della seconda ricerca è: " Measurement of social impact in financial institutions: the case of Banca Popolare Etica ". Si tratta di una ricerca-azione su una metodologia per misurare l'impatto sociale delle banche etiche, fondata sul caso di studio di Banca Popolare Etica. Usiamo un set di dati composto da 1.385 organizzazioni e 1324 individui, beneficiari dei finanziamenti, per studiare la misurazione dell'impatto sociale dei progetti finanziati. Integrando in un unico processo di valutazione (sia quantitative che qualitative) diverse metodologie generalmente utilizzate singolarmente per la misurazione di impatto sociale (Social Return on Investment (SROI), Impact Reporting Investment Standards (IRIS) e storytelling), il caso mostra come i limiti tradizionali di metodologie per misurare l'impatto sociale possono essere superati. Il terzo e ultimo studio è intitolato " Does entrepreneurial education impact on antecedents of entrepreneurial intention? An analysis of an Entrepreneurship MBA in Ghana". Questo studio ha lo scopo di analizzare gli effetti di un programma di educazione all'imprenditorialità, sugli antecedenti dell'intenzione imprenditoriale di studenti in un paese in via di sviluppo. Lo studio analizza i risultati di una ricerca di impatto eseguita con partecipanti di uno specifico programma di formazione all'imprenditorialità: il "E4impact MBA", tenuto dal l'Istituto Cattolico di Business and Technology - CIBT in Accra, Ghana. Il metodo misto impiegato, era un approccio esplicativo (Creswell, Plano Clark et al, 2003), con un disegno quasi-sperimentale (Cohen e Manion, 1989) con test pre e post e misure di cambiamento auto-percepito. Abbiamo valutato i cambiamenti nelle caratteristiche psicologiche imprenditoriali (Need for achievement, Self-efficacy, Locus of control; Risk taking propensity; Tolerance for ambiguity) e competenze e conoscenze personali (Creatività, Conoscenza, Flessibilità, Networking e analisi) sul modello esteso della Teoria del Comportamento Pianificato. L'analisi mostra che il programma di educazione all'imprenditorialità ha un forte impatto sugli antecedenti psicologici e cognitivi delle intenzioni imprenditoriali. Quindi, la partecipazione al programma di educazione all'imprenditorialità può influenzare positivamente le intenzioni imprenditoriali degli studenti e il controllo comportamentale percepito sostenendo l'idea che le università hanno un ruolo fondamentale nel plasmare e promuovere le intenzioni imprenditoriali e le abilità attraverso programmi di formazione all'imprenditorialità.
All organizations have impacts that affect economy, society and the natural environment. Academics from different streams of research (i.e. business and society studies, accounting, strategic management) propose several definitions of “social impact” (Latané, 1981; Burdge & Vanclay, 1996; Emerson et al., 2000; Clark et al., 2004). All these definitions describe, more or less explicitly, the concept of “change”, being each one based on the Theory of Change (Weiss, 1972; Anderson, 2004) – i.e., the change that an organization can produce in people’s way of life, culture, personal and property rights, fears and aspirations, but also with respect to community, political systems, environment, health and wellbeing. The measurement of social impact leads the organization to consider the changes on stakeholders as a result of the set of cause-effect relations proposed by the theory of change. The objective of social impact measurement thus is to understand, in social, environmental and economic terms, changes that have occurred in stakeholders’ lives because of organizations activities, in order to communicate it (Nicholls et al, 2009). Despite a growing interest on social impact measurement, academic production in the topic is still scarce. The present Ph.D. thesis contributes to the ongoing discussion by focusing on the theory, concepts and tools to measure social impact. In particular, two context of analysis are at issue: ethical finance and entrepreneurship education. The work consists of three papers. The first research wants to provide a review of the literature on the issue of measuring the social impact in the context of ethical finance, the second paper is an action research on a methodology for measuring the social impact of ethical banks developed through the extreme case study of Banca Popolare Etica, and the third research concerns the context of entrepreneurial education and aims at studying the impact of an MBA program on the antecedents of entrepreneurship intention of students in Ghana. More in details, the first paper is entitled “Review of impact assessment methodologies for ethical finance”. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature on measuring the social impact in ethical banks. Specifically, we discuss the approach of ethical banks to social impact and social impact measurement considering several studies and frameworks of analysis, then proposing a list of indicators and outcomes to be used to highlight the social impact of ethical banks’ activities. We also point out some gaps in the literature that we left as questions open for future research. The research was carried on with two partners: the Fédération Européenne des Banques Ethiques et Alternatives (FEBEA) and the Institute of Social banks (ISB). The title of the second paper is: “Measurement of social impact in financial institutions: the case of Banca Popolare Etica”. This is an action research on a methodology for measuring the social impact of ethical banks, grounded on the case study of Banca Popolare Etica. We use a dataset of 1,385 organizations and 1,324 individuals, recipients of funding, to study the measurement of the social impact of the projects funded. Integrating in a single assessment process (both quantitative and qualitative) various methodologies generally singularly used for the measurement of social impact (Social Return on Investment (SROI), Impact Reporting Investment Standards (IRIS) and storytelling), the case shows how the traditional limitations of methodologies to measure social impact can be overcome. The third and last study is entitled “Does entrepreneurial education impact on antecedents of entrepreneurial intention? An analysis of an Entrepreneurship MBA in Ghana”. This study has the aim to analyze the effects of an entrepreneurship education program, on the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention of students in a developing country. The study analyzes the results of an impact research conducted with participants to a specific entrepreneurship education program: the “E4impact MBA”, held by the Catholic Institute of Business and Technology – CIBT in Accra, Ghana. The mixed method design employed, was an explanatory approach (Creswell, Plano Clark et al., 2003) with a quasi-experimental design (Cohen and Manion, 1989) featuring both pre-post tests and self-perceived change measures. We assessed changes in entrepreneurial psychological characteristics (Need for achievement, Self-efficacy, Locus of control; Risk taking propensity; Tolerance for ambiguity) and personal skills and knowlwdge (Creativity, Knowledge, Flexibility, Networking and Analysis) following the extended model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The analysis shows that the entrepreneurship education program has a strong impact on psychological and cognitive antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions. That is, participation in entrepreneurship education program can positively influence students’ entrepreneurial intentions and perceived behavioral control supporting the idea that universities have a key role in shaping and fostering entrepreneurial intentions and abilities through entrepreneurship education program.

Social media networks such as Facebook enable advertisers to embed social connection information within advertisements. The purpose of this study was to better understand how social cues in social media advertising contribute to consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions. Two theoretical constructs guided the study: social impact theory and social capital theory. Social impact theory suggests that the number, relational strength, and immediacy of individuals exerting social influence determine its effectiveness. Social capital theory posits that our social networks are a product of the relational capital we have invested in them, with two forms of social capital: bonding and bridging. Bonding is associated with our intimate, "strong ties," and bridging is associated with our larger circle of acquaintances, or "weak ties." Using an experiment (N = 211), it was determined that while social context cues included in social media advertisements did influence brand attitudes, the strength and intensity of cues did not have an effect. Furthermore, bridging, strong-tie social capital positively moderated the relation between advertisement attitude and social media sharing of the advertisement as well as the relation between brand attitude and purchase intentions.

Social impact bonds (SIBs) have been welcomed enthusiastically as a new funding tool for social innovation, yet also condemned as an instrument that neglects beneficiaries' and taxpayers' interests, opening profit opportunities in the field of social politics for smart private investors. We will shed a more analytical light on SIBs, assuming that, like any contract, SIBs try to align interests between partners with partly converging, partly diverging goals. Thus, it remains mainly a matter of negation, and non-profit social service providers as well as public agencies should avoid particular perils and pitfalls.

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Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Nanotechnology has been reported as a technology that will have further development in this century and agricultural nanotechnologies gain space with the discovery of its potential applications in the transport of substances, nanosensors, nanocapsules, among others. Many of these nanoproducts are already found in the market or in development, therefore, exposure to nanoparticles concerns the scientific community and policy makers. In this context, this project aims to develop a methodology for assessing the environmental and social impacts of nanotechnology use in agriculture. Given the complexity and scope of nanotechnology, impact indicators were formulated by reviewing specialized scientific literature. The indicators were conceptually validated in a remote consultation with experts of areas related to agricultural nanotechnology through a questionnaire formulated according to the Delphi technique. The Impactos AGNano method has the indicators as an essential basis for its development and has two stages of evaluation: Safety Assessment (preliminary assessment to obtain the Security Index) and Impact Assessment (for obtaining Impact Index). The method was validated in a presential consultation with experts of areas related to nanotechnology in agriculture.
A nanotecnologia tem sido reportada como a tecnologia que terá maior desenvolvimento neste século e as nanotecnologias agrícolas ganham espaço com a descoberta de suas potenciais aplicações no transporte de substâncias, nanossensores, nanocápsulas, entre outros. Muitos destes nanoprodutos já são encontrados no mercado ou em desenvolvimento, dessa forma, a exposição às nanopartículas utilizadas nessas tecnologias preocupa a comunidade científica e os legisladores. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo a criação de uma metodologia para a avaliação dos impactos ambientais e sociais do uso de nanotecnologias na agricultura. Dada a complexidade e abrangência da área nanotecnológica, indicadores de impacto foram formulados através de revisão de literatura especializada. Os indicadores foram validados conceitualmente em uma consulta remota a especialistas de áreas relacionadas à nanotecnologia agrícola por meio de questionário formulado de acordo com a técnica Delphi. O método Impactos AGNano foi desenvolvido utilizando os indicadores como base e possui duas etapas de avaliação: Avaliação de Segurança (avaliação preliminar para obtenção do Índice de Segurança) e Avaliação de Impacto (para obtenção do Índice de Impacto). O método foi validado em consulta presencial a especialistas de áreas relacionadas a nanotecnologia agrícola.

This is a scoping report that presents conclusions and recommendations regarding the potential relationship between the people of Monroe and Lenawee Counties, Michigan and proposal to consider locating the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) in these counties. The study area is located within the two counties but includes only the extreme eastern portion of Lenawee County. This report discusses the social and cultural impacts that could derive from siting the SSC in these counties, the possible local resident responses to these potential SSC impacts, and potential statewide responses to the project. This scoping research was founded through a contract between the Michigan Energy and Resource Research Associations (MERRA) and the Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan. Scoping g research was conducted between April 15, 1986 and August 31, 1986.

Mestrado em Ciências Empresariais
O Continente africano, apesar do seu reconhecido potencial, não tem conseguido concretizar esse potencial numa trajetória de desenvolvimento sustentado. Ao crescimento económico não tem correspondido o desenvolvimento humano. Em Angola, o sector agrícola surge principal fator de sustento ou como complemento ao orçamento familiar. Atualmente, a agricultura representa 11% do PIB em Angola e emprega cerca de 70% da população. Projetos na área do impact investment têm surgido no continente africano. Este modelo de negócio pode gerar proveitos sociais e económicos. Estas empresas pretendem colmatar a falta de recursos por parte dos Estados, porém cabe aos Governos adotarem medidas para encorajar o desenvolvimento destes investimentos. A investigação desenvolvida apresenta um estudo de caso único, onde se pretendeu avaliar os fatores críticos para conciliar as estratégias sociais e comerciais em projetos de impact investment, tendo por base a empresa DuBengo. O estudo indicia que existem dez fatores críticos para garantir a sustentabilidade e o sucesso no lançamento de um projeto de impact investment: (1) a sustentabilidade financeira; (2) o desenvolvimento comunitário, através do impacto social; (3) a escolha pela vertente preferencial na estratégia; (4) os objetivos claramente definidos na estratégia; (5) a medição do impacto ao nível social e comercial; (6) a definição clara de processos e funções; (7) o estudo aprofundado do local de investimento; (8) a real oportunidade de mercado, podendo colmatar o deficit do Estado; (9) a contratação de recursos humanos qualificados e especializados nas diferentes áreas de atuação; (10) por fim, a importância da inovação do projeto.
The African continent is recognized with a great potential of growth, but it didn't in a sustainable way. The economic growth isn't corresponded by a significant human development. In Angola, the sector of agriculture is a financial support for many families or it is a complement of family budget. Nowadays, the agriculture in Angola represents 11% of GDP and employs near 70% of population. Projects in impact investment have emerged in African continent. The objective of this type of business model is generates social and economic benefits. The enterprises are developed to replace the lack of resources of the Society, but at the same time, the Governments are the motor to create opportunities and measures to attract impact investors. This investigation presents a single case study, from Angolan enterprise DuBengo, where pretends evaluate the critical factors to conciliate social and commercial strategies in impact investment projects. The study consider ten critical factors should be guarantee sustainability and success at the beginning in projects of impact investment: (1) the financial sustainability; (2) the community development, through the social impact; (3) the choose the better strategic vector; (4) objectives clearly defined; (5) evaluate the impact on social and commercial level; (6) definition of processes and functions; (7) is necessary to study the local of investment; (8) real opportunity of market, help the lack of Governments; (9) human resources with know-how in different areas; (10) finally, the innovation of the project.

In the remarkable developments that have occurred recently in all sectors of society, e.g. environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration, responsible investing, social entrepreneurship, and strategic philanthropy, the measurement of extra-financial (or non- financial or external) information remains a key issue. While 'making a difference' is the goal of such developments, no integrated externality measurement framework (IEMF) has been proposed, recognized as a reasonable candidate, or adopted by practitioners. The overall objective of this thesis is to develop such an IEMF which would facilitate meaningful measurements and interpretations of the 'quantum of difference' (e.g. in the context of ESG information) and applications thereof towards resource allocation strategies. The aim is not so much to develop some putative 'perfectly accurate model of reality' but an epistemic framework which would serve as a communicative and organizational anchor. The overall objective derives to five research imperatives, which are responded to by five core chapters in the thesis. The following key findings emerge: Finding 1. The ESG metric landscape exists in a patchwork. In particular, while social impact metrics have proliferated recently, they constitute an incoherent domain of its own, separate from the environmental and governance metric literatures. In devising an IEMF, the key challenges include aggregating disparate metrics and disaggregating causalities. Once such a framework has been devised and adopted by practitioners, one can innovate various resource allocation strategies. Finding 2. The attitudes and approaches toward measurement and metrics can broadly be typologized as being fetishistic, positivistic, cynical, and pragmatic. Taking the pragmatic stance allows us to ascribe an appropriate epistemic status to metrics and calibrates the philosophical proclivity of the culminating IEMF. Finding 3. A geography of philanthropic governance exists. In particular, there are variegated similarities and differences in the perceptions and usage of ecosocial metrics. Significant overlaps in the domain and geographic foci of giving signify the feasibility of meaningful comparison, competition and collaboration among such organizations with metrics at the centrepiece. Finding 4. While best practice benchmarks in the usage of metrics in driving positive tangible changes are rare, a highly innovative integrated rural development program known as Saemaul Undong serves as a solid example. It is possible to maximize the efficiency in resource-deployment, induce participation and competition, and scale a parochial initiative to a national level through the usage of performance metrics. Finding 5. Calibrating appropriate philosophical stance, aggregating widely disparate measuranda, disaggregating casual attribution are among the key challenges towards developing an IEMF. Identifying and adopting appropriate formalisms facilitate addressing such challenges. For adoption in practice, however, one must factor in human expertise and judgements when making resource deployment decisions along with the numbers calculated through such a framework. The findings above constitute a series of 'firsts' of the kind in each relevant bodies of literature, paving the way for further explorations.

Social endorsements are user-generated endorsements of products or services, such as “likes” and personal collections, in an online social platform. We examine the effect of prior social endorsements on subsequent users’ tendency to endorse or examine a product in a social shopping context, where a social platform connect consumers and enable a collaborative shopping experience. This research consists of two parts. In part I, we identify two ways prior social endorsements can affect subsequent user behavior: as a crowd endorsement, which is an aggregate number of endorsements a product receives for anyone who comes across the product, and as a friend endorsement, which is an endorsement with the endorser’s identity delivered only to the endorser’s friends or followers. Using a panel data of 1656 products on a leading social shopping platform, we quantify the relationship between crowd and friend endorsements and subsequent examination (“click”) and endorsement (“like”) of the products, noting that examination is a private behavior while endorsement is a public behavior. Our results are consistent with the identity signaling theory where identity-conscious consumers converge with the aspiration group (the followers) in their public behavior (e.g. endorsement) and diverge from the avoidance groups (the crowd). We also find differences between public and private behaviors. Moreover, the symbolic nature of social shopping platform trumps the traditional dichotomy of symbolic/functional product attributes. Part II of this study seeks to clarify the underlying mechanism through lab experiments. We hypothesize that consumers’ evaluative attitude, specifically the value-expressive type, moderates the relationship between crowd and friend endorsements and a focal user’s product choice. Our initial results of the second study show support for this idea in the cases when the product choice is not obvious.