Mapping Social Impact Assessment Models: A Literature Overview for a Future Research Agenda

Abstract

The social impact assessment (SIA) process is widely utilised and is receiving increasing interest from both scholars and practitioners. A systematic approach was applied in this study to search for articles about SIA models. In the first step, we analysed six main SIA model mappings between 2004 and 2015. In the second step, 98 models were identified. The main findings include the definition of emerging paths for the future research agenda on this topic. Compared with previous SIA mappings, we identified 22 additional models that are related to the sustainability discourse. The meaning of sustainability is defined both by the emergence of new systems in finance that require specific metrics and in relation to the global agenda towards sustainable development. It is interesting to notice how social impact models, sustainability indicators (under the global framework of sustainable development goals (SDGs)) and new financial scores (such as environmental, social and governance (ESGs)) are converging into a common discourse, even if divergence is still present, and further research is needed to unlock the relationships among them.