Creating social value as a strategic planning tool: a solution to the changing environment

Resumo

Corporate social responsibility has become more significant among companies and other institutions. Nevertheless, the traditional approach of corporate social responsibility, based on preventing the possible negative impact of irresponsible and unethical practices, is no longer enough. The profound socio‐economic changes, accelerated as a result of the global economic crisis, demand a further step respect to corporate social responsibility paradigm linking to the so‐called social entrepreneurship, understood here as the incorporation of new social demands to business models. This paper aims to redefine the concept of social entrepreneurship from an eclectic point of view and present a methodological approach for their measurement as a tool for business strategic planning. The theoretical proposal of social entrepreneurship tries to link creating shared value concept with the stakeholder theory, paying special attention to the social return on investment (SROI) method as a tool for the measurement of social value.