Lorsque nous parlons de relations internationales, nous parlons généralement de diplomatie et d'investissement, Le sport peut être utilisé comme outil pour améliorer la diplomatie entre les pays, ainsi que pour développer les intérêts économiques et sociaux. De plus, le sport occupe une place importante dans le repositionnement de l'image d'une nation, tout en améliorant le processus d'intégration des jeunes générations dans le monde. L'un des principaux intérêts, du point de vue du gouvernement, est de créer un lien affectif positif avec la nation hôte de l’évènement sportif. Ce qu'on appelle le soft power. Le but de ce travail est d'explorer certaines des façons dont le sport est utilisé pour générer ce pouvoir, et comment il peut contribuer à générer du contrôle ou à provoquer de l'influence, en se concentrant sur l'État du Qatar. Ce travail est séparé en trois parties principales. Je présente d'abord le développement du sport et la manière dont les événements sportifs ont été utilisés par différents pays et régimes politiques, ainsi que l'impact généré. Deuxièmement, j'essaie de comprendre l'impact généré par l'investissement du Qatar dans l'équipe de football française du Paris Saint-Germain. Et troisièmement, en mesurant l'impact socio-psychologique généré par la jeune génération en organisant des événements sportifs internationaux, le cas du championnat du monde de handball 2015. Ce travail vise à clarifier comment un tel investissement est perçu comme une opportunité de développement au sein de la société, et d'améliorer la diplomatie. En se concentrant sur l'évolution dont le sport est utilisé comme un outil important dans le processus de socialisation des jeunes dans la société mondiale. Sur la base de mes recherches, le résultat de l'investissement dans le Paris Saint-Germain était une situation «gagnant-gagnant» entre la France et le Qatar sur le plan social, économique et politique. De plus, l'utilisation des événements sportifs a eu un impact émotionnel positif, faisant admirer aux résidents la vision du gouvernement. La jeune génération, quelle que soit sa nationalité, a une vision positive des efforts du gouvernement pour s'améliorer et se développer. La vision du gouvernement du Qatar était saillante pour la jeune génération au Qatar. / When we mention international relations, we generally talk about diplomacy and investment, but there are other ways of promoting the interests of a government on the international stage. Sport can be used as tool to improve diplomacy between countries, as well as developing economic and social interests. Additionally, sport takes an important place in shaping the image of a nation, while it improves the integration process of young generations into the world. One of the main interests, from a government perspective, in the use of sport, is to generate a positive emotional connection to a host nation - what is known as soft power. The aim of this work is to explore some of the ways in which sport is used to generate this power, and how it can provide a type of control or influence. Specifically, it will focus on the State of Qatar. This work is separated to three main parts. First I present the development of sport and the way sport events were used by different countries and political regimes, and the impact generated. Second, I try to understand the impact generated from Qatar investment in the French football team Paris Saint-Germain. And third, I measured the socio-psychological impact generated on the young generation from hosting international sport events, as in the case of the Handball World championship 2015.This work sets to clarify how allowing such investment is perceived as an opportunity for development within the society, and to improve diplomacy. Additionally, focussing on the young generation allows me to study the evolution of how sport is an important tool in the process of socialization of young people into global society. Based on my research, I argue that the result of the Paris Saint-Germain investment was a "win-win" situation between France and Qatar on the social, economic, and political level. Also, using sport events generated positive emotional impact, making the residents admire the vision of the government. The young generation, regardless nationality has a positive view of government efforts to improve and develop itself - the Qatari government's vision was salient to the young generation in Qatar.

This research focuses on effective decision-making for sustainable manufacturing design and management. The research contributes to the decision-making tools that can enable sustainability analysts to capture the aspects of the economic, environmental and social dimensions into a common framework. The framework will enable the practitioners to conduct a sustainability impact analysis of a real or proposed manufacturing system and use the outcome to support sustainability decision. In the past, the industries had focused more on the economic aspects in gaining and sustaining their competitive positions; this has changed in the recent years following the Brundtland report which centred on incorporating the sustainability of the future generations into our decision for meeting today's needs (Brundtland, 1987). The government regulations and legislation, coupled with the changes in consumers' preference for ethical and environmentally friendly products are other factors that are challenging and changing the way companies, and organisations perceive and drive their competitive goals (Gu et al., 2015). Another challenge is the lack of adequate tools to address the dynamism of the manufacturing environment and the need to balance the business' competitive goal with sustainability requirements. The launch of the Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis (LCSA) framework further emphasised the needs for the integration and analysis of the interdependencies of the three dimensions for effective decision-making and the control of unintended consequences (UNEP, 2011). Various studies have also demonstrated the importance of interdependence impact analysis and integration of the three sustainability dimensions of the product, process and system levels of sustainability (Jayal et al., 2010; Valdivia et al., 2013; Eastwood and Haapala, 2015). Although there are tools capable of assessing the performance of either one or two of the three sustainability dimensions, the tools have not adequately integrated the three dimensions or address the holistic sustainability issues. Hence, this research proposes an approach to provide a solution for successful interdependence impact analysis and trade-off amongst the three sustainability dimensions and enable support for effective decision-making in a manufacturing environment. This novel approach explores and integrates the concepts and principles of the existing sustainability methodologies and frameworks and the simulation modelling construction process into a common descriptive framework for process level assessment. The thesis deploys Delphi study to verify and validate the descriptive framework and demonstrates its applicability in a case study of a real manufacturing system. The results of the research demonstrate the completeness, conciseness, correctness, clarity and applicability of the descriptive framework. Thus, the outcome of this research is a simulation-based impact analysis framework which provides a new way for sustainability practitioners to build an integrated and holistic computer simulation model of a real system, capable of assessing both production and sustainability performance of a dynamic manufacturing system.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:31:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniel Branchini da Silva.pdf: 532572 bytes, checksum: ad6bc341b47c91a44ad543482789afe0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-20 / The word entrepreneur, which comes from the French entrepreneur, means the one that takes in hands , and it was originally coined by economists such as Jean-Baptiste Say around 1800 to describe the individual that transfers economic resources from a sector of lower productivity to a higher and more profitable one. Later, in the 20th Century, Joseph Schumpeter adds the perspective of innovation as an essential feature, showing that the entrepreneur is the one who promotes a true destruction of the economic order by the introduction of new products and services. Such background reveals how much the word entrepreneur still preserves these features even today, for now it is being used to describe somebody who identifies opportunities, takes risks and makes things happen. In the last three decades, in a context marked by the State s social welfare bankruptcy and by the strengthening of the companies, the word social entrepreneur has appeared to outline the action of a specific type of entrepreneur who works in favor of the collectivity, searching for innovative solutions to emergent demands in areas such as education, health, environment, job and income generation, advocacy and other similar causes, aiming to promote systemic social changes in a sustainable perspective. Therefore, the objective of this research was to investigate the identity of this social entrepreneur, considering his historical roots, ideals and achievements in order to find out if there was an effective emancipation movement towards a post-conventional identity on his part. Thus, seven half-controlled interviews were carried out with individuals formally recognized as social entrepreneurs, whose life histories revealed that most of them continue playing the conventional role labeled by society, but that some have already been anticipating a movement that could indicate a new role to arise soon. Amongst the newly identified characters, one of them seems more like a regulating agent , whose cause involves the normatization of the system, and the other one seems like an emancipatory activist , whose cause is to give voice to the population segments that are ignored by society, stimulating the community itself to obtain its own emancipation / O termo empreendedor, derivado do francês entrepreneur, que significa aquele que toma em mãos , foi originalmente cunhado por economistas como Jean-Baptiste Say, em torno de 1800, para descrever o indivíduo que transfere recursos econômicos de um setor de menor produtividade para outro mais elevado e de maior rendimento. Mais tarde, no século XX, Joseph Schumpeter acrescenta a dimensão da inovação como característica essencial, mostrando que o empreendedor é aquele que promove uma verdadeira destruição da ordem econômica por meio da introdução de novos produtos e serviços. Tal histórico revela o quanto ainda hoje o termo empreendedor preserva essas características, por ser utilizado para descrever alguém que identifica oportunidades, assume riscos e faz acontecer. Nas últimas três décadas, em um contexto pautado pela falência do Estado do bem-estar social e pelo fortalecimento das empresas, o termo empreendedor social surge para delimitar a atuação de um tipo específico de empreendedor que age em prol da coletividade, buscando soluções inovadoras para demandas emergentes em áreas como educação, saúde, meio-ambiente, geração de emprego e renda, defesa de direitos e outras causas similares, com a pretensão de promover transformações sociais sistêmicas, em uma perspectiva sustentável. Portanto, o objetivo da presente pesquisa foi investigar a identidade deste empreendedor social, considerando suas raízes históricas, ideais e realizações, com o propósito de descobrir se havia por parte dele um efetivo movimento emancipatório em direção a uma identidade pós-convencional. Para tal, foram feitas entrevistas semi-dirigidas com sete sujeitos caracterizados formalmente como empreendedores sociais, cujas histórias de vida revelaram que a maioria deles continua desempenhando o papel convencionalizado pela sociedade, mas que alguns já estão antecipando um movimento que pode indicar uma mudança de papel em breve. Dentre as novas personagens encontradas, uma se assemelha mais a um agente regulador , cuja causa envolve a normatização do sistema e outra a um ativista emancipatório cuja causa é dar voz a segmentos da população que não são ouvidos, incentivando que a própria comunidade consiga se emancipar

A presente pesquisa tomou por objeto de estudo central a dimensão social (mais conhecida como \'componente antrópico\' ou \'componentes do meio socioeconômico\') consubstanciada na prática e no discurso de avaliação de impacto ambiental. Buscou-se analisar as ausências, lacunas, insuficiências, distorções e omissões ativas no trato dessa dimensão social, procurando compreendê-las como indícios da configuração momentânea das fronteiras do \'social\' na regulação ambiental de projetos no Brasil, enquanto construção histórica atravessada por interesses conflitantes entre os envolvidos nas disputas por hegemonia do campo ambiental, sem perder de vista seu diálogo com outros campos do espaço social, como o político e o econômico. Através dessa chave interpretativa, foi possível retomar as origens e características históricas que conformaram os sentidos dominantes de termos como \'meio ambiente\', \'impacto ambiental\' e \'atingido\' na regulação pública e na atividade de avaliação de impacto, subsumindo da equação os impactos e processos sociais relacionados à implantação de grandes projetos. A pesquisa argumenta, nesse sentido, que ao componente social tem sido atribuído um papel marginal, frágil e bastante delimitado espacial e temporalmente, corroborando com críticas históricas a este instrumento de planejamento. Diagnósticos empobrecidos, avaliações que escamoteiam a complexidade de impactos sociais cumulativos, indiretos e de segunda ordem (cujas marcas são o longo prazo, a fluidez das fronteiras espaciais, a imprevisibilidade, a intangibilidade e a dificuldade de valoração monetária) e medidas mitigadoras e compensatórias insuficientes são ilustrados empiricamente pela pesquisa, tomando o estudo de impacto ambiental de um projeto de anel rodoviário recente, situado no Litoral Norte do estado de São Paulo, como matéria-prima principal de análise. Aliado a uma metodologia investigativa, baseada no levantamento de documentos oficiais do processo licenciatório, a pesquisa procurou identificar os meandros, os mecanismos, as operações e os filtros que recolocam o \'social\' como parte subordinada da avaliação de impacto ambiental, dando pouquíssimo relevo a questões fundamentais, como: fluxos migratórios, crescimento demográfico, demanda adicional sobre infraestrutura e serviços urbanos, transformações da paisagem e novas configurações urbanas, mudança de perfil sociocultural e econômico em nível regional, etc. Em paralelo, após extensa revisão bibliográfica nacional e internacional na área de avaliação de impacto social (que serviu de embasamento teórico-conceitual à pesquisa), procurou-se averiguar em que medida as novas formulações discursivas emergentes, tanto no campo ambiental quanto no subcampo profissional da avaliação de impacto, nos últimos trinta anos, têm encontrado ressonância na prática da avaliação de impacto ambiental de projetos, no país - i.e., como têm sido apropriadas por agentes reguladores e consultores técnicos responsáveis pelos EIAs. Por fim, a pesquisa buscou tecer reflexões sobre as potencialidades e limitações inerentes à avaliação de impacto ambiental como instrumento de planejamento regional, integrado, democrático, fundado em princípios de equidade ambiental e no reconhecimento das demandas de grupos sociais atingidos. / The present study has focused on the social dimension (better known as \'anthropic component\' or \'components of the socioeconomic environment\'), based on the practice and discourse of environmental impact assessment. It sought to analyze the absences, gaps, inadequacies, distortions and omissions that are active in the treatment of this social dimension, seeking to understand them as signs of the momentary configuration of the boundaries of the \'social\' in the environmental regulation of projects in Brazil, as a historical construction crossed by interests Conflict between those involved in environmental hegemony disputes, without losing sight of their dialogue with other fields of social space, such as political and economic. Through this interpretive key, it was possible to return to the origins and historical characteristics that conformed the dominant meanings of terms such as \'environment\', \'environmental impact\' and \'reached\' in public regulation and impact assessment activity, subsuming impacts And social processes related to the implementation of large projects. The research argues, in this sense, that the social component has been assigned a marginal, fragile and quite delimited spatial and temporal role, corroborating historical criticism of this planning instrument. Impoverished diagnostics, assessments that eschew the complexity of cumulative, indirect and second-order social impacts (whose long-term marks, fluidity of spatial boundaries, unpredictability, intangibility and difficulty in monetary valuation) and insufficient mitigating and compensatory measures Are empirically illustrated by the survey, taking the environmental impact study of a recent road ring project, located in the North Coast of the state of São Paulo, as the main raw material for analysis. In addition to an investigative methodology, based on the collection of official documents of the licensing process, the research sought to identify the meanders, mechanisms, operations and filters that replace the \'social\' as a subordinate part of the environmental impact assessment, giving very little emphasis to Such as: migration flows, population growth, additional demand on infrastructure and urban services, landscape transformations and new urban configurations, socio-cultural and economic profile change at the regional level, etc. In parallel, after extensive national and international literature review in the area of social impact assessment (which served as a theoretical-conceptual basis for research), it was sought to determine to what extent new emerging discursive formulations, both in the environmental field and in the professional subfield Of the impact assessment over the last thirty years have found resonance in the practice of assessing the environmental impact of projects in the country - ie as they have been appropriated by regulators and technical consultants responsible for EIAs. Finally, the research sought to reflect on the potentialities and limitations inherent to environmental impact assessment as a regional, integrated, democratic planning tool based on principles of environmental equity and the recognition of the demands of affected social groups.

<p>In this study I have looked at social impacts of mobile telephone usage in Sweden in the Spring of 2001. Through observations and interviews have I tried to outline how social relations and concepts of time have changed and are still in a process of change alongside with the high percentage of mobile phone users today.</p><p>The conclusions I have made from my research is that mobile phone usage affects society and how people interact and that people want to reach others, but want to control their own reachability. Communication via mobile phone differs from face-to-face communication and communication on stationary phones, but mobile phones seem to be used as means to facilitate face-to-face interaction. There seem to be some commonly shared notions among my informants of what appropriate mobile phone behavior is, but people seem to not always abide to this. People tend to create their own private zones in public places when using their mobile phones and through their usage send social messages to others. I have also found that the use of time is an important aspect connected to mobile phones. People seem not to make as many plans ahead any longer, but instead make up plans as they go. Many seem to have forgotten how life was before there where mobile phones!</p>

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 323 pages. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This dissertation reports the activities, methods, and key findings of a doctoral research project in applied anthropology and an environmental anthropology fellowship. The research project was conducted through the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, while the fellowship was sponsored jointly by the Society for Applied Anthropology and the United States Environmental Protection Agency and was conducted through the Great Lakes Fellowship Program of the Great Lakes Commission, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Together, these projects demonstrated the utility of an ethnographic approach called Risk Perception Mapping (RPM) to the public consultation and social research interests of the Commission and its associated network of environmental management agencies and organizations. / Through consultation with these organizations I identified an environmental management problem to which anthropological perspectives and methods would be particularly well-suited: Can the undesirable social phenomenon of environmental discrimination be minimized by assuring greater equality in access to public participation in environmental management? To address this problem, I conducted an RPM demonstration project in a five county area surrounding the Fermi II nuclear power plant in southeastern Michigan. My research focused on cultural, geographical, and social-contextual factors that influence the nature and distribution of perceived risk among populations that are potentially affected by environmental management projects. Key findings pertain to perceptually-specific communities of environmental risk and have implications for what I call "participatory equity" in environmental management. / Potential applications to Great Lakes environmental management center on developing equitable population-specific exchanges of information through which more culturally sensitive indicators of Great Lakes ecosystem integrity may emerge. Anthropological contributions to public participation in environmental management are discussed with particular attention to anthropological perspectives on the multiple publics that comprise locally affected communities of environmental risk. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Bakgrund: Impact investment är en ny finansieringsform, som med sitt ursprung och framväxt i både USA och Europa nu spridits till Sverige. Fenomenet beskrivs inom populärvetenskapen som investeringar med avsikten att generera en mätbar samhällsmässig och/eller miljömässig avkastning tillsammans med en finansiell avkastning. I Sverige har impact investment sedan bara några år tillbaka uppmärksammats av svenska aktörer som har börjat arbeta med investeringsformen. Fenomenet kan ses som en idé som överförts till ett nytt sammanhang, därden har uppmärksammats och blivit till verksamhetsaktiviteter. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att skapa förståelse för fenomenet impact investment i Sverige och att analysera på vilket sätt impact investment har formats av sitt sammanhang. Metod: Studien har en hermeneutisk forskningsansats och har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod. En intervjustudie har utförts med totalt sju nyckelpersoner inom det svenska organisationsfältet för impact investment. Internationella rapporter om fenomenet har även använts för att kartlägga de aktiviteter som genomförts i de länder som ingår i studien. Slutsats: Studien visar att impact investment har flera olika innebörder i Sverige. Impact investment har formats av sitt sammanhang vilket har resulterat i att impact investment har översatts av nya hybridorganisationer i samhället. / Background: Impact investment is a new funding that has its origin and growth in both the USA and Europe. It is now emerging to Sweden. The phenomenon is described in the popular science literature as investments with the intention to generate measurable social and/or environmental impact along with a financial return. In Sweden impact investment has been observed for only a few years. Swedish operators have started to use the funding and the phenomenon can be understood as an idea that has moved to a new context, where it has been noticed and used in operational activities. Aim: The aim of the study is to create an understanding of the phenomenon impact investment in Sweden and to analyse in what way impact investment has been formed by its context. Methodology: The study has a hermeneutic research approach and has been conducted with a qualitative approach. The study has been realized with a total of seven key figures in the Swedish organizational field of impact investment. International reports of the phenomenon have been used to track the activities conducted in the countries included in the study. Conclusion: The study shows that impact investment has many different meanings in Sweden. Impact investment has been formed by its context and has been translated by new hybrid organisations in the society.

In this study I have looked at social impacts of mobile telephone usage in Sweden in the Spring of 2001. Through observations and interviews have I tried to outline how social relations and concepts of time have changed and are still in a process of change alongside with the high percentage of mobile phone users today. The conclusions I have made from my research is that mobile phone usage affects society and how people interact and that people want to reach others, but want to control their own reachability. Communication via mobile phone differs from face-to-face communication and communication on stationary phones, but mobile phones seem to be used as means to facilitate face-to-face interaction. There seem to be some commonly shared notions among my informants of what appropriate mobile phone behavior is, but people seem to not always abide to this. People tend to create their own private zones in public places when using their mobile phones and through their usage send social messages to others. I have also found that the use of time is an important aspect connected to mobile phones. People seem not to make as many plans ahead any longer, but instead make up plans as they go. Many seem to have forgotten how life was before there where mobile phones!

Tutte le organizzazioni hanno un impatto che riguarda l'economia, la società e l'ambiente naturale. Gli studi accademici di diversi filoni di ricerca (ad business and society studies, accounting, strategic management) propongono diverse definizioni di "impatto sociale" (Latane, 1981; Burdge & Vanclay, 1996;. Emerson et al, 2000;. Clark et al, 2004 ). Tutte queste definizioni descrivono, in modo più o meno esplicito, il concetto di "cambiamento", essendo basati sulla “teoria del cambiamento” (Weiss, 1972; Anderson, 2004) - vale a dire, il cambiamento che un'organizzazione può produrre nel modo di vivere delle persone, nella cultura, personale nelle aspirazioni, ma anche rispetto alla comunità, ai sistemi politici, l'ambiente, la salute e il benessere. La misurazione dell’impatto sociale conduce l'organizzazione a considerare i cambiamenti prodotti sugli stakeholders come risultato di una serie di rapporti causa-effetto proposteidalla teoria del cambiamento. L'obiettivo della misurazione dell’impatto sociale è quindi di capire, in termini sociali, ambientali ed economici, i cambiamenti che si sono verificati nella vita delle parti interessate, a causa di attività di organizzazioni, al fine di comunicarlo (Nicholls et al, 2009). Nonostante il crescente interesse sulla misurazione dell'impatto sociale, la produzione accademica sull'argomento è ancora scarsa. La presente tesi contribuisce alla discussione in corso, concentrandosi sulla teoria, i concetti e strumenti per misurare l'impatto sociale. In particolare, due contesti di analisi sono presi in considerazione: la finanza etica e l'educazione all'imprenditorialità. La tesi si compone di tre articoli. La prima ricerca vuole fornire una revisione della letteratura sul tema della misurazione dell'impatto sociale nel contesto della finanza etica, il secondo articolo è una ricerca-azione su una metodologia per misurare l'impatto sociale delle banche etiche sviluppata attraverso lo studio del caso estremo di Banca Popolare Etica, e la terza ricerca riguarda il contesto della formazione imprenditoriale e mira a studiare l'impatto di un programma MBA sugli antecedenti dell’intenzione all'imprenditorialità di studenti in Ghana. Più in dettaglio, il primo documento è intitolato " Review of impact assessment methodologies for ethical finance ". Questo documento fornisce una rassegna completa della letteratura sulla misurazione dell'impatto sociale nelle banche etiche. In particolare, si discute l'approccio delle banche etiche all’impatto sociale e alla misurazione dell'impatto sociale considerando diversi studi e analisi, poi proponendo un elenco di indicatori e outcomes da utilizzare per evidenziare l'impatto sociale delle attività delle banche etiche. Si segnalano, inoltre, alcune lacune nella letteratura che abbiamo posto come questioni aperte per la ricerca futura. La ricerca è stata portata avanti con due partner: la Fédération Européenne des Banques et Ethiques Alternative (FEBEA) e l’Institute of Social banks (ISB). Il titolo della seconda ricerca è: " Measurement of social impact in financial institutions: the case of Banca Popolare Etica ". Si tratta di una ricerca-azione su una metodologia per misurare l'impatto sociale delle banche etiche, fondata sul caso di studio di Banca Popolare Etica. Usiamo un set di dati composto da 1.385 organizzazioni e 1324 individui, beneficiari dei finanziamenti, per studiare la misurazione dell'impatto sociale dei progetti finanziati. Integrando in un unico processo di valutazione (sia quantitative che qualitative) diverse metodologie generalmente utilizzate singolarmente per la misurazione di impatto sociale (Social Return on Investment (SROI), Impact Reporting Investment Standards (IRIS) e storytelling), il caso mostra come i limiti tradizionali di metodologie per misurare l'impatto sociale possono essere superati. Il terzo e ultimo studio è intitolato " Does entrepreneurial education impact on antecedents of entrepreneurial intention? An analysis of an Entrepreneurship MBA in Ghana". Questo studio ha lo scopo di analizzare gli effetti di un programma di educazione all'imprenditorialità, sugli antecedenti dell'intenzione imprenditoriale di studenti in un paese in via di sviluppo. Lo studio analizza i risultati di una ricerca di impatto eseguita con partecipanti di uno specifico programma di formazione all'imprenditorialità: il "E4impact MBA", tenuto dal l'Istituto Cattolico di Business and Technology - CIBT in Accra, Ghana. Il metodo misto impiegato, era un approccio esplicativo (Creswell, Plano Clark et al, 2003), con un disegno quasi-sperimentale (Cohen e Manion, 1989) con test pre e post e misure di cambiamento auto-percepito. Abbiamo valutato i cambiamenti nelle caratteristiche psicologiche imprenditoriali (Need for achievement, Self-efficacy, Locus of control; Risk taking propensity; Tolerance for ambiguity) e competenze e conoscenze personali (Creatività, Conoscenza, Flessibilità, Networking e analisi) sul modello esteso della Teoria del Comportamento Pianificato. L'analisi mostra che il programma di educazione all'imprenditorialità ha un forte impatto sugli antecedenti psicologici e cognitivi delle intenzioni imprenditoriali. Quindi, la partecipazione al programma di educazione all'imprenditorialità può influenzare positivamente le intenzioni imprenditoriali degli studenti e il controllo comportamentale percepito sostenendo l'idea che le università hanno un ruolo fondamentale nel plasmare e promuovere le intenzioni imprenditoriali e le abilità attraverso programmi di formazione all'imprenditorialità. / All organizations have impacts that affect economy, society and the natural environment. Academics from different streams of research (i.e. business and society studies, accounting, strategic management) propose several definitions of “social impact” (Latané, 1981; Burdge & Vanclay, 1996; Emerson et al., 2000; Clark et al., 2004). All these definitions describe, more or less explicitly, the concept of “change”, being each one based on the Theory of Change (Weiss, 1972; Anderson, 2004) – i.e., the change that an organization can produce in people’s way of life, culture, personal and property rights, fears and aspirations, but also with respect to community, political systems, environment, health and wellbeing. The measurement of social impact leads the organization to consider the changes on stakeholders as a result of the set of cause-effect relations proposed by the theory of change. The objective of social impact measurement thus is to understand, in social, environmental and economic terms, changes that have occurred in stakeholders’ lives because of organizations activities, in order to communicate it (Nicholls et al, 2009). Despite a growing interest on social impact measurement, academic production in the topic is still scarce. The present Ph.D. thesis contributes to the ongoing discussion by focusing on the theory, concepts and tools to measure social impact. In particular, two context of analysis are at issue: ethical finance and entrepreneurship education. The work consists of three papers. The first research wants to provide a review of the literature on the issue of measuring the social impact in the context of ethical finance, the second paper is an action research on a methodology for measuring the social impact of ethical banks developed through the extreme case study of Banca Popolare Etica, and the third research concerns the context of entrepreneurial education and aims at studying the impact of an MBA program on the antecedents of entrepreneurship intention of students in Ghana. More in details, the first paper is entitled “Review of impact assessment methodologies for ethical finance”. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature on measuring the social impact in ethical banks. Specifically, we discuss the approach of ethical banks to social impact and social impact measurement considering several studies and frameworks of analysis, then proposing a list of indicators and outcomes to be used to highlight the social impact of ethical banks’ activities. We also point out some gaps in the literature that we left as questions open for future research. The research was carried on with two partners: the Fédération Européenne des Banques Ethiques et Alternatives (FEBEA) and the Institute of Social banks (ISB). The title of the second paper is: “Measurement of social impact in financial institutions: the case of Banca Popolare Etica”. This is an action research on a methodology for measuring the social impact of ethical banks, grounded on the case study of Banca Popolare Etica. We use a dataset of 1,385 organizations and 1,324 individuals, recipients of funding, to study the measurement of the social impact of the projects funded. Integrating in a single assessment process (both quantitative and qualitative) various methodologies generally singularly used for the measurement of social impact (Social Return on Investment (SROI), Impact Reporting Investment Standards (IRIS) and storytelling), the case shows how the traditional limitations of methodologies to measure social impact can be overcome. The third and last study is entitled “Does entrepreneurial education impact on antecedents of entrepreneurial intention? An analysis of an Entrepreneurship MBA in Ghana”. This study has the aim to analyze the effects of an entrepreneurship education program, on the antecedents of entrepreneurial intention of students in a developing country. The study analyzes the results of an impact research conducted with participants to a specific entrepreneurship education program: the “E4impact MBA”, held by the Catholic Institute of Business and Technology – CIBT in Accra, Ghana. The mixed method design employed, was an explanatory approach (Creswell, Plano Clark et al., 2003) with a quasi-experimental design (Cohen and Manion, 1989) featuring both pre-post tests and self-perceived change measures. We assessed changes in entrepreneurial psychological characteristics (Need for achievement, Self-efficacy, Locus of control; Risk taking propensity; Tolerance for ambiguity) and personal skills and knowlwdge (Creativity, Knowledge, Flexibility, Networking and Analysis) following the extended model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The analysis shows that the entrepreneurship education program has a strong impact on psychological and cognitive antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions. That is, participation in entrepreneurship education program can positively influence students’ entrepreneurial intentions and perceived behavioral control supporting the idea that universities have a key role in shaping and fostering entrepreneurial intentions and abilities through entrepreneurship education program.

This feminist project explores the experiential accounts of twenty-five women who have lived through abuse within their intimate relationships. Their stories, gathered through a series of semi-structured face-to-face interviews intended to elicit accounts of resilience were saturated with emotion-talk, especially shame-talk. To address questions of the relationship between these accounts and theoretical accounts of abuse, and shame the women’s texts were engaged in an analytic dialogue with feminist knowledges of abuse against women, Erving Goffman’s sociological understandings of shame, stigma and mortification of the self, Thomas Scheff’s sociological theory of shame and social bonds, and feminist poststructuralist understandings around the constitution of human subjectivity. These conversations enabled development of a conceptual representation of the special and highly specific form of social bonding experienced by victims of abuse within intimate relationships. This bonding begins with processes of mortification of the self, the gradual erosion of a sense of self through the systematic imposition of various shaming and shameful actions. These processes take place within a specific social context created through the constitutive power of dominant discourses of gender, heterosexual coupledom, matrimony and motherhood which work to shape the lives of individual women. Because of the specific ways in which these discourses currently operate within Aotearoa New Zealand they result in the constitution of a narrow range of tightly prescribed subject positions available to victims of intimate partner abuse. This analysis leads to an argument that women’s inability to ‘do’ motherhood or intimate partnership in line with dominant discourses of mothering and relationships (because these simply cannot be achieved within an abusive context), opens them to the debilitating effects of shame. Shame, both actual and threatened, promotes silence, isolation and dangerous private spaces as women seek to protect themselves from its painful experience. I argue that it is therefore crucial to promote the availability of discursive positioning for women living through abuse which offers non-shaming and realistic choices.