Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This dissertation examines perceptions of purpose in family foundations and the impact of differences in those perceptions on family foundation board composition/function and on grant making activities. One of the primary decisions facing the donor who creates a private foundation relates to governance. Here, the donor arguably faces a deeply personal choice: to what extent should the donor’s family be involved? Related to this choice is the question of the degree of focus on the mission-related aspects of the organization or the family-related aspects of the organization. This dissertation explores whether family foundation trustees view family purposes and social impact purposes as meaningful for the foundation they represent and whether trustees differ with regard to the degree to which they emphasize one or the other. If family foundation trustees do meaningfully differ in this regard, what difference does an emphasis on family or social impact purposes make on board composition, grant making focus and stability, similarity to one’s peers, and other factors? Through a combination of survey, interview, and review of publicly available material, this dissertation explores this question for a sample of family foundation trustees in two Midwestern states.

Previous studies by Cornforth (2003, 2004), Cornelius et al. (2008), Cornelius and Wallace (2010), and Wallace and Cornelius (2010) highlight the need for further research in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for social enterprises and how their governance systems facilitate social outcomes when aligned to organisational mission. Against this backdrop, the main aim of this study is: to investigate the extent to which social enterprises (not-for-profit social providers) pursue ethical practices and social policies underpinned by their CSR agendas that enhance their stakeholders’ capabilities. The conceptual framework for the study is built on Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach (Sen 1991, 1999). Primary data were collected from face-to-face, in-depth, semi structured interviews with twelve owner-managers of small social enterprises from Bradford, UK. These were designed to understand their enterprise’s ethical views towards the development of deprived communities and the role this has in formulating their enterprise’s CSR agenda. The interview data were transcribed and analysed using constructivist grounded theory. The findings suggest that external CSR provision is often prompted as an immediate reaction to problematic issues arising in society. In general, it consequently lacks sustainability and is insufficiently evaluated for long term social impact. It is therefore argued that the CSR agenda for social enterprises should be based more on the organisation’s social ethos than the current process. Moreover, the findings emphasise the importance of social strategy emanating from governance mechanisms as this was identified as critical for the implementation of the CSR agenda so that social value is created in a structured and planned manner. These findings make a contribution to knowledge by providing conceptual and empirical insights regarding the consequences of social enterprises incorporating capabilities into their CSR policies and practices, and its social impact. Moreover, a conceptual model is developed that reflects the strategic importance of such a convergence in achieving this dual purpose.

Sustainable design is often practiced and assessed through the consideration of three essential areas: economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability. For even the simplest of products, the complexities of these three areas and their trade-offs cause decision making transparency to be lost in most practical situations. Additionally, the models and tools available to consider social sustainability are severely underdeveloped. This thesis is separated into three parts: 1) a design tool to consider all three aspects of sustainability simultaneously, 2) a literature survey to characterize social impact as it relates to products, and 3) interviews with engineering professionals regarding how social impact is currently considered in product design in industry.The existing field of multi-objective optimization offers a natural framework to define and explore a given design space. In chapter 2 of this thesis, a method for defining a products sustainability space (defined by economic, environmental, and social sustainability objectives) is outlined and used to explore the trade-offs within the space, thus offering both the design team and the decision makers a means of better understanding the sustainability trade-offs. This chapter concludes that sustainable product development can indeed benefit from trade-off characterization using multi-objective optimization techniques “ even when using only basic models of sustainability. Interestingly, the unique characteristics of the three essential sustainable development areas lead to an alternative view of some traditional multiobjective optimization concepts, such as weak Pareto optimality. The sustainable redesign of a machine to drill boreholes for water wells is presented as a practical example for method demonstration and discussion. In these efforts it became apparent that the tools for considering social impact were lacking and needed to be further developed.While efforts have been made to identify social impacts, academics, and practitioners still disagree on which phenomena should be included, and few have focused on the impacts of products specifically compared with programs, policies, or other projects. The primary contribution of chapter 3 of this thesis is to integrate scholarship from a wide array of social science and engineering disciplines that categorizes the social phenomena that are affected by products. Specifically, we identify social impacts and processes including population change, family, gender, education, stratification, employment, health and well-being, human rights, networks and communication, conflict and crime, and cultural identity/heritage. These categories are important because they can be used to inform academics and practitioners alike who are interested in creating products that generate positive social benefits for users.Though academic research for identifying and considering the social impact of products is emerging, additional insights can be gained from engineers who design products every day. Chapter 4 explores current practices in industry used by design engineers to consider the social impact of products. 46 individuals from 34 different companies were interviewed to discover what disconnects exist between academia and industry when considering a products social impact. These interviews were also used to discover how social impact might be considered in a design setting moving forward. This is not a study to find the state of the art, but considers the average engineering professionals work to design products in various industries. Social impact assessments (SIA) and social life cycle assessments (SLCA) are two of the most common processes discussed in the literature to evaluate social impact, both generally and in products. Interestingly, these processes did not arise in any discussion in interviews despite respondents affirming that they do consider social impact in product design. Processes used to predict social impact, rather than simply evaluate, were discussed by the respondents and tended to be developed within the company and often related to industry imposed government regulations.The combined work reported in this thesis is a significant step forward in being able to handle the unwieldy nature of social impact in product design in the larger context of sustainability. Not only do these efforts provide a basis upon which future tools can be developed, they are also immediately useful in providing a basic framework upon which to consider the full spectrum of social impact of products during design.

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This thesis investigates the relationship between organizational size and the decision of using social impact measurements in Swedish socially entrepreneurial organizations, which include organizations and individuals that aim at solving social problems. Data is collected using an online survey, and three different ways to measure organizational size are used and tested whether they have a positive relation-ship with the use of social impact measurement. Organizational size is measured as the yearly turnover, available personnel and the number of members and participants in the organization. The association was analyzed through three different analytical methods, and we also present detailed descriptive statis-tics for the data sample. The results showed significant relationships between available staff as well as members and participants and the use of social impact measurements, while no significant relationship between the yearly turnover and the use of social impact measurements could be confirmed. We suggest a consideration of impact measurements when addressing sustainable organizational development as well as consideration of organizational size for local governments when introducing policies, funding and other support for socially entrepreneurial organizations.

Corporate social marketing (CSM) refers to "a means whereby a corporation supports the development and/or implementation of a behavior change campaign intended to improve public health, safety, the environment, or community well-being" (Kotler & Lee, 2005a, p.114). The examination of CSM by professional sport organizations (PSOs) is significant since these organizations have the potential to serve as a particularly meaningful vehicle for promoting socially beneficial ideas and behavior (Chalip, 2006; Kaufman & Wolff, 2010; Loakimidis, 2007; Smith & Westerbeek, 2007). Despite this, little investigation has been undertaken in this research area (Irwin, Irwin, Miller, Somes, & Richey, 2010; Sparvero, 2010). Furthermore, no comprehensive framework exists that explains the process of how CSM influences consumer voluntary behavior in general business disciplines (Du, Sen, & Bhattacharya, 2008). The purpose of this study was to address this gap and investigate the role of corporate credibility in understanding the process of how PSOs influence consumer voluntary behavior through their CSM initiatives. The current research focused on corporate credibility based on previous research findings indicating that the credibility of a message source greatly influences the persuasiveness of its communication (e.g., Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953; Pornpitakpan, 2004). This study developed a theoretical model positing that consumers would formulate their perceptions regarding the credibility of a PSO on supporting environmental protection ("environmental credibility") based on: (1) characteristics of the organization, (2) characteristics of the CSM initiative, and (3) characteristics of the cause. Environmental credibility, in turn, was expected to influence consumer pro-environmental behavior measured by daily recycling involvement and recycling intentions during the PSO's home games. The model further proposed that value congruence would have mediating and moderating effects on the relationship between environmental credibility and pro-environmental behavior. To test this theoretical model, the study collected data from fans of two PSOs that currently operate environmental initiatives. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was employed to analyze the data (n = 368) obtained through web-based questionnaires. The SEM results indicated that the following four of the eight hypothesized antecedents of environmental credibility had significant positive effects: general credibility, perceived effort, perceived impact, and cause importance. Furthermore, environmental credibility was found to positively influence the two recycling behaviors as expected. Contrary to the theoretical propositions, however, the results did not find support for the positive mediating and moderating effect of value congruence. Overall, the findings of this study contribute to the literature by highlighting the role of corporate credibility when PSOs engage in CSM initiatives. Moreover, this research, as well as future endeavors, helps PSOs become an effective vehicle for promoting socially beneficial behavior, which ideally can lead to positive social change. / Tourism and Sport