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Never Mind Corporate Responsibility, Companies Can Solve Actual Social Problems
In the world of management research, Michael Porter is a rockstar. His "Five Forces" framework is a key tool in the field of strategy and his books have canonical status within MBA programs (even if most students haven't actually read all 592 pages of Competitive Advantage). In an industry known for fast-talking gurus, Porter—who teaches at Harvard Business School—is an intellectual.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Curbing the “Impact Impostors”: The growing movement toward transparency in impact investing
Impact investing’s rising popularity has spawned some unfortunate side effects. For instance, as demand for a social component has grown among investors, so have efforts to brand standard equity investments with the impact label – even when their actual impact is negligible. In the final post of his series, Bill Burckart details the efforts of policy makers, regulators and investors to address this issue.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Impact and Risk Metrics…in Smallholder Finance and Beyond: Three new metrics collaboration tools from the Initiative for Smallholder Finance
In financing smallholder farmers, there’s a gap of over $400 billion between demand and supply. Impact and risk metrics can play an important role in closing that gap, but current metrics are confusing to industry leaders and daunting to potential new entrants. The Initiative for Smallholder Finance has created three new metrics collaboration tools to help clarify the space.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
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NexThought Monday (2/10/14) – The Kiva Fairytale: It’s a Microlending Superstar – But Who is it Really Serving?
Beloved by the public and celebrated by the likes of Bill Clinton and Oprah, Kiva is perhaps the most famous microlender in the world. It lets users lend small amounts via the Internet to individual low-income entrepreneurs, based on their personal stories and photos. But according to Hugh Sinclair, it’s focused more on making lenders feel good than on actually helping the poor.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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NexThought Monday (1/20/14) – The Tragic Failure of Microcredit: Yunus’ Dream Has Become a Nightmare for the Global Poor
Microcredit was devised as a free market solution that would enable the global poor to escape their own poverty by starting an income-generating activity. But Milford Bateman argues that due to deregulation, commercialization - and fundamental flaws in the model - microcredit has instead undermined developing economies and trapped the poor in a cycle of debt.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Tiered vs. Equitable Pricing: Why Access to Medicine Index 2014 takes societal needs, affordability into account
The lead researcher with the Access to Medicine Index, which ranks pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to improve access to medicine for priority diseases in developing countries, explains how and why the Index’s pricing methodology evolved from measuring tiered-pricing strategies to measure what the Index terms “equitable pricing strategies” instead.
- Categories
- Health Care, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- supply chains
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Cheaper, Faster, Better?: Mercy Corps compares E-transfers and cash in the DRC
International humanitarian agencies are increasingly offering cash and vouchers as humanitarian assistance. But distributing cash carries security risks for agencies and recipients, while presenting accounting and logistical challenges. Electronic alternatives or vouchers could address these issues, but how well do they work? Mercy Corps studied the question in a program in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- digital payments, research
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Are Impact Accelerators/Incubators Targeting Emerging Markets Any Good?
Seems every time you turn around, there’s a new impact incubator or accelerator aimed at social enterprises in developing countries. But that doesn’t mean they’re any good.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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