The social impact of the firm: A geographic perspective

Abstract

The lack of consensus regarding the definition of social impact in the academic and practitioner setting makes it difficult the identification and measurement of impact. The increasing number of methods and approaches is the result of the different ways in which the concept of social impact can be measured. This dissertation presents a geographic perspective to address the identification and measurement of the impact of firms at the facility level. This dissertation provides theoretical arguments regarding the firms’ effects in their surrounding areas. Based on their effects on people and the natural and physical environments, this research proposes the following parameters: health, crime, real estate, and green spaces. A specific objective was to build an index at the facility level. To achieve that, this dissertation applied a spatial approach to build a social performance index. That is, a geographic perspective allows the use of spatial data and satellite images. This research included specific indicators for each parameter. The social performance index gets a score on a 0-100 scale based on the average of the four parameters. This index is based on a 500m buffer. Based on the impact evaluation literature, this research used a double-difference (DD) method to evaluate impact. This research considers two buffer distances as groups: 500m buffer as the treatment group and 1km buffer as the comparison group. The social performance index at the facility level makes it possible comparisons among facilities and industries. This research has practical implications for business, government, and education. Besides, this research demonstrates that a geographic perspective is built on diverse literatures and techniques.