Measuring Business Impacts in a Small Business : Case B-Impact Assessment Tool
Silvast, Annika (2018)
Silvast, Annika
Vaasan ammattikorkeakoulu
2018
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018060713061
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2018060713061
Tiivistelmä
The business environment is becoming increasingly more unpredictable and there-fore understanding the economic, environmental and social impacts of business has become increasingly more important. The aim of this thesis is to find out what the benefits and challenges of measuring business impacts in a small sized business are. The aim is also to give an understanding what kind of developments have led to the current situation and what the future looks like.
The aim of the theoretical framework is to create a basic understanding of con-cepts related to sustainability and take a look into historical developments as well as the current and future developments of integration of business and sustainable values. The theoretical framework is strongly based on the work of John Elkington and Volans, who have been catalyzing sustainable breakthrough in business.
The case study for this thesis was conducted in two phases. In the first part, the B Impact Assessment created by the B Lab, was carried out with a case company, in order to assess the assessment process itself by analyzing the assessment output and conducting an interview with a company that does not have previous experi-ence from B Impact Assessment. In the second part, an interview with asset man-agement company Helsinki Capital Partners was conducted, in order to get a longer time perspective about B Impact Assessment and having B Corporation certification.
The case study showed that B Impact Assessment offers reference regarding which areas of business operations are strong or weak in terms of negative and positive economic, environmental and social impacts. However it requires signifi-cant investment in time and personnel resources, to provide accurate data for the questions in the assessment, which is imperative in order to get a reliable and truthful output from the assessment.
The aim of the theoretical framework is to create a basic understanding of con-cepts related to sustainability and take a look into historical developments as well as the current and future developments of integration of business and sustainable values. The theoretical framework is strongly based on the work of John Elkington and Volans, who have been catalyzing sustainable breakthrough in business.
The case study for this thesis was conducted in two phases. In the first part, the B Impact Assessment created by the B Lab, was carried out with a case company, in order to assess the assessment process itself by analyzing the assessment output and conducting an interview with a company that does not have previous experi-ence from B Impact Assessment. In the second part, an interview with asset man-agement company Helsinki Capital Partners was conducted, in order to get a longer time perspective about B Impact Assessment and having B Corporation certification.
The case study showed that B Impact Assessment offers reference regarding which areas of business operations are strong or weak in terms of negative and positive economic, environmental and social impacts. However it requires signifi-cant investment in time and personnel resources, to provide accurate data for the questions in the assessment, which is imperative in order to get a reliable and truthful output from the assessment.