Herausforderungen der Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse bei Sozialunternehmen

Social entrepreneurs aim at generating positive social and environmental impact through innovative entrepreneurial action. They are thus increasingly perceived as promising problem solvers for social and ecological challenges. Yet, social entrepreneurship does not necessarily aim at generating financial returns. Social entrepreneurs therefore often face difficulties to attract funding on conventional capital markets.
Social impact investing is an innovative financing option which explicitly places charitable effects and social value at the center of investors’ expectations. While being a promising opportunity to overcome difficulties in the capital acquisition of social entrepreneurs, it presupposes transparency regarding the impact of projects and thus the assessment of both non-monetary and monetary outcomes. Cost-benefit-analysis is an approach to achieve such transparency. In this chapter, we discuss methodological challenges associated with cost-benefit analyses for social enterprises.