Assessment of the economic and social impact using SROI: An application to sport companies

Abstract

This paper evaluates the social impact of a football club and its philanthropic organization on the local community and its stakeholders, namely supporters, sponsors, players, and shopkeepers. The methodology used is the Social Return on Investment (SROI). SROI methodology includes all the beneficiaries that are beyond the scope of the company's accounting and its fiscal and financial statements. The aim is to assess both the benefits and the negative impacts of a company's activities on stakeholders. This type of analysis combines the use of qualitative, quantitative and financial information gathered and analyzes them in order to estimate the amount of "value", including mental health and well-being, created or destroyed by a business activity, by a project or by the overall operation of an organization. The sport club under review in the present analysis is called Virtus Entella, an Italian football club playing in the second division. An SROI indicator was applied in reference to the business activity that took place during the championship season 2017/2018. Results show that the social impact created during the championship amounts to approximately 44 million Euro against a financial investment of 15 million Euro, producing an SROI ratio of 2.98:1. This outcome suggests that for every euro invested by the football club, about 3 Euros of social value is created.