Shared impact: changing perspectives towards assessing collaborative achievements
Publication date
2025-12-01
Document type
Preprint
Author
Jastram, Sarah Margaretha
Berberyan, Zara
Foersterling, Johanna
Organisational unit
Department Strategy & Leadership, Hamburg School of Business Administration
Publisher
Universitätsbibliothek der HSU/UniBw H
Part of the university bibliography
Nein
Language
English
DDC Class
330 Wirtschaft
Abstract
In this conceptual article, we criticise existing approaches of individual impact thinking and measuring by managers, accountants, and other business actors in the context of complex international grand challenges and institutional environments. We propose a new concept called ‘shared impact’, which reflects the joint achievements of actors working towards the goal of creating social and/or ecological value in highly opaque and interdependent contexts. We build on and contribute to institutional theory, particularly to the decoupling discourse, by differentiating the construct ‘ends’ and distinguishing between individual and shared impacts. Moreover, we build a bridge between the decoupling theory and the empirical analysis of impacts. Our new ‘shared impact’ perspective addresses current conceptual limitations concerning impacts and ends as well as related measurement problems, which have led in the past to unclear theoretical constructs, vague or misleading conclusions, and stakeholder criticism. Our shared impact concept is relevant for impact researchers and scholars of institutional decoupling as well as for managers, accountants, NPOs, and policymakers aiming to address complex socio-economic issues and grand challenges in fields such as Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability.
Version
Author's original
Access right on openHSU
Open access