Enhancing impact evaluation systems to support strategic decision making and value creation processes in social enterprises

Objectives. Realizing strategies contributing to a better world (improving individual and collective sustainable wellbeing), call for innovative managerial systems able to plan, monitor and evaluate the social impact of the business actions. Moreover, the growing interest on social enterprises development - and diversification - call for common frames. Although many contributions exist, and practices are emerging, there is a significant gap between theory and practice on “impact” models. The paper aims at developing a literature-based framework useful to highlight the main dimensions of a social impact assessment system able for support effective decision making and value creation processes, with a special reference for social enterprises. This is done by assuming a process-led perspective, connecting impact evaluation to the overall strategic and managerial systems.