All organisations have social, environmental and economic impacts that effect people, their communities and the natural environment. Impacts include intended as well as unintended effects and negative as well as positive effects. Current practice in performance measurement tends to focus on measuring only a part of the total impact that organisations have on society. The research about what impact, as distinct from output and outcomes, organisational actions have upon the society remains largely unexplored in existing management and business & society research. Therefore, the objectives of this dissertation are to increase the understanding of social impact of organisations, and to propose a framework and methodology that facilitates social impact measurement. The social impact of different organizational activities is studied throughout this dissertation. The first study focuses on the social impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The second study focuses on Strategic Philanthropy while the third study focuses on the social impact of an individual foundation, the Netherlands Heart Foundation. This variety of organisational activities is chosen to show that impact measurement is relevant in the profit sector as well as in the non-profit sector and is relevant for all kinds of organisational activities. Next to this, in a fourth study, different existing social impact measurement methods are collected, analysed and classified. The studies in this dissertation add to the existing body of research that focuses on corporate social performance and social impact measurement. It also informs management about the possibilities and limitations of social impact measurement.

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Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) Copromotor: Dr. F.A.A. Boons Prof. dr. W.B.F. Brouwer Prof. dr. A.G.Z. Kemna Prof. dr. E. Peelen
H.R. Commandeur (Harry)
Erasmus University Rotterdam , Erasmus Research Institute of Management
hdl.handle.net/1765/17627
ERIM Ph.D. Series Research in Management
Erasmus Research Institute of Management

Maas, K. (2009, December 2). Corporate Social Performance: From Output Measurement to Impact Measurement (No. EPS-2009-182-STR). ERIM Ph.D. Series Research in Management. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/17627