What is the Impact of X?

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From the course by University of Pennsylvania

Business Strategies for Social Impact

137 ratings

University of Pennsylvania

Business Strategies for Social Impact

137 ratings

Course 4 of 4 in the Specialization Business Strategies for A Better World

When is it good business practice to invest for social good? What are the most innovative and effective business strategies for developing positive social impact around the world? Designed by renowned Wharton professors Katherine Klein and Chris Geczy to help individuals, organizations, and investors bring about societal change, this course introduces the fundamentals of impact investing, and developing a business strategy that drives social impact. You’ll learn how to become a leader who cultivates purpose and inspires change, measure societal impact through evidence-based models, and invest in ventures effectively and meaningfully. By the end of this course, you’ll have a deep understanding of the realities of leading an organization with purpose, and be able to build successful strategies that bring impactful change to the world.

From the lesson

Module 3: Impact Measurement

In this module, you’ll examine the criteria and standards of evidence developed to measure the true social impact of your organization. You’ll identify the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental Social and Governance Criteria (ESG) to be able to better answer the question “What is the Impact of X?” By examining the Nesta Foundation Framework and its standard of evidence, you’ll explore the different levels of rigor for each logic model using real-life examples and learn to accurately assess your organization’s inputs, outputs, and impact. By the end of this module, you’ll be able to calculate the Social Return on Investment (SROI) of your enterprise and be able to strategize an effective plan for your business.

Introduction to Impact Measurement9:46

What is the Impact of X?3:39

Standards of Evidence7:00

Logic Model Level 15:08

Logic Model Level 210:53

Logic Model Level 37:22

Logic Model Level 418:44

Logic Model Level 57:28

Logic Model Level Q23:39

Meet the Instructors

Katherine Klein
Edward H. Bowman Professor of Management
The Wharton School
Christopher Geczy
Adjunct Professor of Finance
Finance

In this video, I want to talk about what we mean when we ask,

what's the impact of X?

So that sounds like a simple question, but it's not.

When we ask what is the impact of X,

we usually have in mind a whole bunch of more specific questions or sub questions.

For instance, we want to know well,

how might X have an impact?

What's our theory of change?

What's the kind of logical sequence that explains how X has an impact?

We want to know who X has an impact on.

We also want to know, well,

what specifically does X have an impact on?

Does it have an impact on nutrition,

or profits, or energy consumption?

What specifically is that impact on?

We also want to know how large is the impact.

Is it deep and transformative?

Is it broad?

We might also want to know how certain is the impact.

And it was just kind of a risky proposition maybe the impact works, maybe it doesn't.

So, we want to know how large is the impact of X.

We also want to know when does X have an impact?

How quickly does this impact occur,

and how long does it last?

We'd also like to know something about unintended negative consequences.

We're really focused on the positive impact,

we hope X has again whether X is a company,

or an organization, or focused on the positive consequences, the positive impact.

Are there also unintended negative consequences?

So we'd like to know that.

We'd also like to know how clear and certain

are we that X actually cause the impact we observed.

Is there a clear causal connection so that we can say how we cause this impact?

That's something we want to learn.

We want to know whether the impact of X is generalizable.

That means, maybe we've seen that X causes all sorts of good outcomes for boys.

Does it also work for girls?

We see that X has great outcomes in Singapore.

Does it also have great outcomes in Venezuela?

So, that's what we mean by generalizing.

Does it generalize?

Does this program or company work not

just in one setting for one group of people? Does it work elsewhere?

And finally, we want to know whether the impact we've created by X is worth the cost.

It might cost a whole lot to create this impact.

Do we think that cost is worthwhile?

So essentially, we want to do some kind of

cost-benefit analysis to make sure that the benefits are worth the cost.

So, there's a whole lot we're asking when we ask this question,

what is the impact of X?

That's part of the reason impact measurement is pretty complicated.

It's also part of the reason why impact measurement is so valuable.

So another point I want to emphasize as we start to dig into this topic is,

we can answer those kinds of questions with more or less vigor,

with more or less certainty.

We might just kind of have some assumptions about

all those things and we're pretty confident in our assumptions and,

you know what, we're not that interested in measuring it.

Or we might really want clear and rigorous standards,

to make sure that we are measuring these things really accurately.

So that's what I'm going to take up in the next video.

I'm going to talk about what are the standards of

evidence that we might use to answer those questions.

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