Avaliação de impacto à luz da teoria de mudança: um estudo multicaso.

Abstract

In recent times, organizations have been moving towards business models geared not only to the economic bias, but reaching social and environmental dimensions. In this sense, the social impact business (NIS) presents itself with a business model whose mission is the solution of a socioenvironmental problem linked to the financial return. Because of its mission to mitigate to socio-environmental problem, this type of business needs to evaluate and monitor the impact generated, a fact that has been much discussed due to its complexity. Thus, the Theory of Change (ToC) presents itself as a planning and control tool that can assist organizations in the process of impact assessment. This paper aims to describe and analyze the theory of change of the social impact business through a multicaso study with companies in the Brazilian education sector. For this, interviews were conducted with the entrepreneurs of 4you2 and Studos, in order to gather information about the components of its value chain, as well as the implementation process. It was found that the process of causal relationship between the value proposition of the companies and the impact generated is well structured, with gaps only existing in relation to impact assessment tools, and proof of this. Thus, it is necessary to apply tools that allow companies to see if the impact is actually being achieved, and make necessary adjustments to achieve it.