New technologies for the social impact assessment of Italian Social Economy Organizations

Social Impact Assessment (SIA) is a key issue for several Social Economy Organizations, such as associations, foundations, social enterprises, social cooperatives, and consortiums, that are trying to be accountable. The Italian Third Sector Reform makes the SIA not mandatory for all Third Sector Entities (TSEs). However, the Government and Public Administration could request SIA from entities if the committed project or the public interest initiative is long-lasting (at least eighteen months); financially solid (more than 1-million-euro the financial dimension of the organization that performs this initiative/project); and not local (developed in an interregional, national, or international context). The consequence is that if a private organization that is under the above conditions does not assess the impact, the government (or the public administration) could not support its project or initiative. Therefore, the Reform suggests the SIA, especially for the organizations that promote big initiatives of coproduction and planning with the public administrations and the Government. In several further cases, organizations could freely decide to measure and assess the social impact for accountability reasons. The SIA Guidelines (Decree July 23, 2019) do not propose a specific SIA model for the ETSs but accept as equivalent the models that are internationally recognized by literature and practices, such as the Social Return on Investment (SROI), etc. Our paper aims to identify the main SIA models studied in recent accounting and management literature, mostly used from the Italian SEOs, with some empirical evidence retrieved from successful Third Sector Entities (ETSs), especially cooperative and social enterprises that are partners with the public. We also aim to discuss the opportunity to consider new technologies, such as blockchain, to implement SIA models in some projects and initiatives in partnership with PA and the government. The digitalization of the public and private sector is one of the most important objectives for the future of Europe. In Italy, this important objective has been translated into Mission 1 of the national PNRR, also coherent with goal 9 of the UN SDGs 2030, and with the new Social Economy Action Plan (December 9, 2021). Our purpose is to provide a framework for organizations interested to apply the SIA in their initiatives and project also considering the huge possibilities offered by digital technologies such as blockchain. Indeed, in this conceptual study, we could explore whether blockchain technology, and its core operational principles, such as decentralization, transparency, equality, and accountability, could play a role in assessing the impact of social and public benefit initiatives. A research agenda will be also provided from a critical accounting perspective on the digitalization of SIA for SEOs. Indeed, this specific topic is already treated in computer sciences and cyber policy, but no past analyses are developed considering the accounting focus.