Social Enterprise Evaluation: Implications for Tourism Development

Abstract

The evaluation of social enterprise projects has focused mainly on devising effective performance measurement methods and processes to justify the investment of resources and time committed to such activities. With increasing demands for accountability, effectiveness, evidence of return on investment and value-added results, evaluation activities have been driven by imperatives of objectivity in assessments and the development of tools that monetize the social outcomes and impacts of social enterprise projects. These traditional approaches to evaluation have also been widely adapted in tourism based social enterprises that seek to attain goals of poverty alleviation, empowerment of local communities, and improved livelihoods for those marginalized from mainstream tourism economic activities. This chapter argues that traditional approaches to evaluation may be limited in supporting social entrepreneurship projects with development objectives of empowerment and societal change. It is proposed that social enterprise projects involving community participation may be better positioned to achieve their developmental objectives by incorporating more of the principles of Participatory Evaluation (PE) and Empowerment Evaluation (EE) in the quest to harness the economic prowess of tourism for human development.

An integrated path framework of tourism and hospitality social entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review

“…However, the academic community still needs to form a unified THSE performance evaluation index system due to differences in fields, methods and data collection. By comparing various performance evaluation methods, scholars believe that more participatory evaluation and empowerment evaluation principles can facilitate community-based THSE to achieve better their development goals (Daye and Gill, 2017).…”

“…However, institutional factors have a dual nature. Scholars argued the hindering effects of institutions Daye and Gill (2017) Source: Authors' work on THSE. Institutional inadequacies such as cumbersome bureaucratic procedures, external assistance and patronage relations in local politics have negatively affected the operation of tourism social enterprises in Malawi (Mzembe et al, 2019).…”

Social Return on Investment (SROI) to Assess the Impacts of Tourism: A Case Study

“…Using the analysis of a case as a guiding thread, we can observe how the application of this methodology allows one to know in depth the social value that the palace brings, the changes experienced by the interest groups that interact with it, and the theory of change that promotes the very existence of the palace. In conclusion, this methodology finds out what works for whom and whose interests are being served (Daye & Gill, 2017).…”

“…Therefore, this theory is focused on analyzing how social change is obtained and what is the value created (Viganó & Lombardo, 2019). As indicated by Daye and Gill (2017), the SROI method expands the assessment beyond the outcomes that were the aim of the intervention, including not planned benefits. In this way, through the evaluation process, we can learn how changes are being generated.…”

How to Recover the Labor Force of the Tourism Industry after the Global Health Crisis? : A Study in Vietnam

“…All parties involved, including authorities, communities, enterprises, and tourists, are responsible for ensuring sustainable and high-quality tourism development (Aquino et al, 2018). However, it is vital to emphasize that tourist enterprises have the primary responsibility because they are the driving force behind the tourism economy and the primary factor determining the industry's performance (Daye et al, 2017).…”