La valutazione degli impatti sociali e, più precisamente, la misurazione e conseguente valutazione degli stessi, è un tema assai caldo e dibattuto sia a livello accademico, che professionale e politico. Ad alimentare questo dibattito si sommano: diverse prospettive di indagine ovvero studiosi provenienti da differenti campi di studio, interlocutori, strumenti e contesti di applicazione. Ciononostante, esiste una immutata esigenza generalizzata ovvero capire quali metodologie e quali strumenti possano essere impiegati per la produzione, gestione e misurazione di un preciso impatto sociale.
Abstract European University alliances, formally introduced in 2019, are rapidly expanding, as more than 400 million euros have been dedicated in 2023 by the European Commission to foster international collaborations to promote new forms of development within and beyond university communities. By undertaking interventionist research on UNITA – Universitas Montium , one of the largest European alliances, representing 160.000 students, this paper aims to illustrate how a university alliance is tasked with developing an internal assessment methodology to account for the societal benefits created by the project for the academic and civil communities. The elaboration of the assessment tool to assess the contribution to higher education and societal sustainable communities has brought researchers to discover etic and emic implications, revealing the existence of an accountability layer in which the international alliance directly engages with rural and mountain communities in marginalized areas. This research marks a significant advancement in the field of higher education sustainability, providing both a novel analytical perspective on the benefits of university alliances for the development of local sustainable communities and a methodological tool for their assessment.
"Drawing back on the ever-evolving stakeholder management theory, this book responds to calls for more empirical research into the managerial sense making of the stakeholder concept. The book explores how managers make sense of stakeholder management, especially in complex and challenging business contexts. Therefore, this book contributes to the advancement of the managerial branch of the stakeholder management theory focussing on managers' sense making intended as how they interpret and understand social interactions. With this book, the authors offer a contribution grounded on the what, why, when, who and how of stakeholder management, which are questions that still arouse considerable interest not only between academics, but also among practitioners"--
AbstractFor decades, companies found in international protocols and standards an alternative source of normative guidance to operatively implement sustainability policies at an organisational level. The ever‐increasing adoption of these multi‐faceted policies and guidelines co‐occurs with a more proactive and voluntaristic attitude towards CSR implementation by companies. Born as a kind of soft corporate law to reinforce a regulatory answer to sustainability issues, today, CSR due diligence is becoming a central pillar of the transition of the economic system towards a great level of sustainable development. The paper presents the results of an interventionist research carried out by researchers in collaboration with the European Parliament, aimed at developing a normative resolution on the prominent role of CSR due diligence and its accountability. Through the exploration of the different state‐of‐the‐art of European companies on CSR due diligence, findings suggest that there is considerable room for improvement in CSR due diligence that can be reached through a normative intervention. In addition, the paper contributes to the development of the literature on interventionist research carried out by business scholars, focusing on academia‐industry‐institutions relations.
Megaprojects serve as the foundation of societal progress, providing essential infrastructure for a country's development and meeting its societal needs. There is a growing interest within the academic community to untangle the complex nature of megaprojects. This study conducts a comprehensive systematic literature review on megaprojects from the perspective of business, management, and accounting studies to provide a general map of the research conducted in this field and to highlight gaps for future research. The findings reveal thematic areas, including (i) sustainable development and decision‐making, (ii) governance approach, (iii) project management, (iv) risk assessment, and (v) economic and social effects/social responsibility. Moreover, identified gaps encompass limited consideration of the use/operation and end‐of‐life phases, inadequate evaluation of environmental and social impacts in economic terms, insufficient focus on sustainability reporting, inclusive governance, and using novel methodologies for complex system analysis in the field of megaprojects.
