The Limits of Economic Value in Measuring the Performance of Social Innovation

Despite considerable discussion of the nature and role of social innovation in recent years (see Phills et al., 2009), there is much less clarity over the best methods with which to assess its effects and impacts. This is, at least in part, because social innovation represents an aspect of ‘production’ whose effects are not typically mediated by prices. Social innovation is typically expressed, in organizational form, by social enterprises. Social enterprises are often present in markets where purely commercial enterprises, and sometimes even public agencies, are also active. However, it is now well known that even if these types of organization are present in the same markets, they do not produce exactly the same quality of goods or services (Henry et al., 2009).