Teaching Social Impact Measurement to Enable Socially Savvy Decisions in Business

As methodologies for quantifying and valuing social sustainability are not yet well established, it is important for business education to offer courses that emphasize social impact evaluation and decision-making. This chapter provides a general educational framework to teach social impact measurement and to aid students in learning to make socially savvy decisions through an applied learning project. Following the Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) framework, students learn to evaluate social impacts related to society and labor practices, including employment, workforce development, local communities, social equity, and quality of well-being using quantifiable indicators. The teaching practice includes two major concepts: stakeholder analysis that focuses on the jointness of stakeholder interests to create value for stakeholders, and Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA) that quantifies the value of all impacts of an initiative, in monetary terms, to all individuals in society. This practice can be effectively integrated into business courses to educate managers to be socially responsible and capable of considering the broader impact on society and various stakeholders in their decision-making process. This chapter aims to correspond directly to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 8 (Decent work and economic growth), 10 (Reduced inequalities), and 16 (Peace, justice and strong institutions) but may go beyond them because the measurement can also be applied in various social sustainability perspectives.