Doing Less to Do More? Optimal Service Portfolio of Non-profits That Serve Distressed Individuals

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priyank Arora ◽  
Morvarid Rahmani ◽  
Karthik Ramachandran
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Domestic Abuse ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Optimal Service ◽  
Service Portfolio ◽  
The Social ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Service Offering ◽  
Allocation Decisions

Problem definition: Many nonprofit organizations (NPOs) serve distressed individuals who seek relief from hardships such as domestic abuse or homelessness. These NPOs aim to maximize social impact by allocating their limited amount of resources to various activities. Academic/practical relevance: NPOs that serve distressed individuals face a complex task because their clients are often unable to articulate their specific needs. As a result, NPOs are driven to not only offer a variety of services to fulfill different needs, but also engage in advisory activities to minimize mismatches between services clients receive and their true needs. Methodology: We develop a model to study an NPO’s service portfolio and effort allocation decisions under resource constraint. Clients’ progress from distress to resolution is stochastic and depends on the NPO’s efforts in different stages of the service offering. Results: We show that it is optimal for resource-constrained NPOs to offer fewer services and invest more in advisory activities when different types of clients are not evenly mixed in the population, when delays in achieving resolution can significantly blunt the social impact created, when the loss of impact due to not serving a fraction of clients is low, or when there is a limited amount of earmarked funds. Otherwise, it is optimal for NPOs to diversify their service offerings and invest less in advisory activities. Managerial implications: Many NPOs are drawn to maximize the number of clients they serve by increasing the number of services they offer. However, we show that, depending on the characteristics of clients and services, NPOs might be able to generate higher social impact by prioritizing the speed of resolution rather than focusing on the number of clients who achieve resolution. We also present a practical application of our model in the context of domestic abuse.

Partial Completion as a Nonprofit Strategy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Can Zhang ◽  
Atalay Atasu ◽  
Karthik Ramachandran
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Service Portfolio ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Partial Completion ◽  
Innovative Solution ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Level 3

Problem definition: Faced with the challenge of serving beneficiaries with heterogeneous needs and under budget constraints, some nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have adopted an innovative solution: providing partially complete products or services to beneficiaries. We seek to understand what drives an NPO’s choice of partial completion as a design strategy and how it interacts with the level of variety offered in the NPO’s product or service portfolio. Academic/practical relevance: Although partial product or service provision has been observed in the nonprofit operations, there is limited understanding of when it is an appropriate strategy—a void that we seek to fill in this paper. Methodology: We synthesize the practices of two NPOs operating in different contexts to develop a stylized analytical model to study an NPO’s product/service completion and variety choices. Results: We identify when and to what extent partial completion is optimal for an NPO. We also characterize a budget allocation structure for an NPO between product/service variety and completion. Our analysis sheds light on how beneficiary characteristics (e.g., heterogeneity of their needs, capability to self-complete) and NPO objectives (e.g., total-benefit maximization versus fairness) affect the optimal levels of variety and completion. Managerial implications: We provide three key observations. (1) Partial completion is not a compromise solution to budget limitations but can be an optimal strategy for NPOs under a wide range of circumstances, even in the presence of ample resources. (2) Partial provision is particularly valuable when beneficiary needs are highly heterogeneous, or beneficiaries have high self-completion capabilities. A higher self-completion capability generally implies a lower optimal completion level; however, it may lead to either a higher or a lower optimal variety level. (3) Although providing incomplete products may appear to burden beneficiaries, a lower completion level can be optimal when fairness is factored into an NPO’s objective or when beneficiary capabilities are more heterogeneous.

scholarly journals How Social Impact and innovation Have Been Related in the Academic Literature?

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-151
Author(s):  
Mary Fernanda de Sousa de Melo ◽  
Rodrigo Trotta Yaryd ◽  
Roberta Castro Souza ◽  
Willerson Lucas Campos-Silva
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Financial Innovations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
New Research ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Literature Data Analysis

Purpose: Analyze what subjects emerges when integrating “social impact” and “innovation” in the scientific literature. Methodology: It was developed a systematic review of literature. Data analysis was done in two stages: descriptive and exploratory. The co-word network maps were analysed through the VOSviewer software. Originality / Value:The globalization and the advancements in the technological and informational fields, together with the development of the emerging economies, involve a range of challenges. In this sense, technology could increase the capability of identifying social needs and enhances the low-cost possible solutions. However, it is not clear how innovation and social impact have been analysed by the literature. Findings:Previous studies were advanced, by not restricting a period for the collection and contemplating the last three years (2015-2018), where 70% of the articles of the sample belong. Furthermore, the clusters’ analysis allows the development of new research focusing on subareas that permeate this discussion, thus helping to define, understand and advance the discussion of the theme. Theoretical / methodological contributions: The main subject that emerges from the analysis was the financial question. Both in the bibliographic and the qualitative analysis of the top papers, it was noticed that as a theoretical basis and practical example of social impact innovation, the financial innovations stand out.  Managerial implications: The result reinforces that meeting the social needs is an opportunity for entrepreneurs, that can act attaining inclusive economy and inclusive growth. 

scholarly journals Toward a New Metrics for the Evaluation of the Social Added Value of Social Enterprises

2019 ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Andrea Bassi ◽  
Giorgia Vincenti
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Social Enterprises ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Social Impact Assessment ◽  
Organizational Environments ◽  
The Social

There is a widespread dissatisfaction among nonprofit leaders and managers, private funders and public decision-makers concerning the current systems of social impact assessment of nonprofit organizations/social enterprises (NPO/SE).The systems of performance measurement of NPO/SE vary greatly in relationship to a series of endogenous and exogenous variables related to different organizational environments: economic, political, social and cultural.The aim of this article is to present an innovative theoretical framework on the basis of which it is possible to define a set of indicators for the evaluation of the social added value produced by NPO/SE.Our hypothesis is that NPO/SE are characterized by their ability to generate different outcome at each of the dimensions of social life: micro, meso and macro. Meaning, a sense of responsibility at the micro level; relational goods at the meso level; and social capital at the macro level.The article illustrates the assessment tool called S.A.V.E. applied, as empirical reference, to three Italian social enterprises operating in the field of health and social services (local welfare systems).

Sourcing from a Self-Reporting Supplier: Strategic Communication of Social Responsibility in a Supply Chain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Lu ◽  
Brian Tomlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
Problem Definition ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
High Type ◽  
Audit Failure ◽  
The Social ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Self Assessments

Problem definition: To manage supplier social responsibility (SR), some firms have adopted a self-assessment strategy whereby they ask suppliers to self-report SR capabilities. Self-reported information is difficult to verify, and this leads to an important credibility question: can a buyer expect truthful reporting? We examine whether a supplier’s SR capability can be credibly communicated through free and unverifiable self-reporting. Academic/practical relevance: SR is a strategic focus for firms because consumers care about ethical production. Some firms rely on supplier self-assessment as part of their SR strategy. It is important to understand the value and challenges of this approach. Methodology: We develop a cheap talk model of a supplier and a buyer. The supplier is endowed with a given SR level (privately known to the supplier) that represents the probability of no violation. The buyer sells in a market that is sensitive to publicized SR violations. The supplier first communicates its SR level to the buyer, and then the buyer chooses between two audit stringency levels to conduct on the supplier and also chooses how much to order. Results: Influential truthful communication may emerge in equilibrium if (i) the buyer orders a larger quantity from the high-type supplier but imposes a more stringent audit than the buyer would for the low type and (ii) the high-type supplier opts for this larger order, whereas the low-type, fearing audit failure, does not. The buyer can benefit as the audit becomes more expensive. Managerial implications: Supplier SR self-assessments can be a valuable strategy for buyers but only if the buyer has access to auditing capabilities of different levels and does not precommit to a particular level. It is valuable for firms to engage in an up-front auditing step to ensure a minimum SR capability of approved suppliers because very low-performing suppliers never truthfully report. Implementing supplier self-assessments may or may not help reduce the social damage resulting from potential SR violations; we identify situations when it helps and when it does not.

The Social Impact of Suffering: Physical Pain Thwarts Social Needs

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Riva ◽  
James H. Wirth ◽  
Kipling D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
The Social

Ukrainian migrant women’s social remittances: Contents and effects on families left behind

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Alice Vianello
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Economic Education ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Social Remittances ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Intergenerational Conflicts ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right

This article examines different forms of Ukrainian migrant women’s social remittances, articulating some results of two ethnographic studies: one focused on the migration of Ukrainian women to Italy, and the other on the social impact of emigration in Ukraine. First, the paper illustrates the patterns of monetary remittance management, which will be defined as a specific form of social remittance, since they are practices shaped by systems of norms challenged by migration. In the second part, the article moves on to discuss other types of social remittances transferred by migrant women to their families left behind: the right of self-care and self-realisation; the recognition of alternative and more women-friendly life-course patterns; consumption styles and ideas on economic education. Therefore, I will explore the contents of social remittances, but also the gender and intergenerational conflicts that characterise these flows of cultural resources. 

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