Reflections around the performance of the social enterprise

Abstract

In a social enterprise, the notion of "performance" must be understood in a broader sense than just financial profitability. Because this type of company pursues a social mission whose achievement has collective impacts, it is necessary to go beyond what the only indicators provided by the market allow.
 This article thus endeavors to construct a definition of the performance of a social enterprise that is as rigorous as possible, by developing an approach defining the performance of a social enterprise not as a "yield", but as an "expanded production" in adding to the traditional definition of production “the impacts”, usually not taken into account by the market, on all the individuals concerned, whether or not they are the direct beneficiaries.
 By nature, these impacts are not taken into account by the market and their measurement refers to the classic question of the valuation of non-market goods. The author therefore examines the indicators for measuring the performance of social enterprises. The aim is to identify the different techniques for monetary measurement of the value of non-market goods and to indicate whether they are likely to lead to relevant values ​​for the evaluation of the performance of a social enterprise. This reading grid is applied to the technique of social return on investment (SROI).