ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the applicability of the social return on investment (SROI) approach from a Continental European perspective. It outlines how SROI and the sustainability discourse are related as well as the basics of impact. The chapter presents an updated version of SROI, originally developed by the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund in the 1990s, consisting of qualitative and quantitative impact dimensions capturing social and environmental returns. It also discusses the applicability of the updated SROI version within strong and corporatist welfare regimes, with regard to how it meets three typical problems of an oversimplified interpretation of impact. The three problems are methodology, organizational development, and advocacy. The chapter illustrates how the problems can be dealt with in practice by drawing on a short case discussion of measuring the impact of the 'Free Welfare Associations' in Germany to provide pathways for the durable improvement of SROI.
