Exploring Social Value for Sustainability: A Revelatory Case Study

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Abstract

Social value for sustainability has received considerably less attention in academia compared to environmental and economic value. To remedy this, our study explores social value for sustainability, investigating an organization dedicated to social and societal contributions through education and empowerment, studying social value at a youth theatre. Drawing on the resource-based view, we distinguish value input and value output for the diversity of stakeholders. Juxtaposing input, that is, value invested, and output, that is, value created, identifies what stakeholders give to and gain from the organization. Our analysis reveals that, first, deliberate value invested and unintentional value are invested. Second, we find more nuances to social value, in particular, the role of value transformation as value drawn from the conversion of value, rather unique for social sustainability. Third, we move beyond the single organization and its stakeholders to identify value contribution to society. The insights from the single case study contribute to our conceptual framework for social value for sustainability that distinguishes deliberate social value invested, unintentional social value provided, social value transformation, social value created, and value contribution to society.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5818-5832
Number of pages15
JournalCorporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management
Volume32
Issue number5
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 6 Jun 2025
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Mendeley c546e517-98e2-3a8a-b2cc-ef7097a30fee
Scopus 105007711783

Keywords

Keywords

  • corporate social responsibility, not-for-profit management, social entrepreneurship, sustainability management, sustainability performance, sustainable entrepreneurship