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- Title
Does management control for sustainable development support TSEs funding? Some insights from the Italian context.
- Authors
Cavicchi, Caterina; Vagnoni, Emidia
- Abstract
Third Sector Reform and the subsequent implementing decrees have paved the way for the social impact assessment (SIA) by third sector entities (TSEs). When defining SIA, the ministerial guidelines of 2019 has also included the "sustainability of the social action" as an element to be assessed and communicated to stakeholders by TSEs (Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali, 2019). Furthermore, while it is recognized that sustainable development (SD) may affects donors' choice to fund TSEs, studies investigating TSEs' capacity to attract funds thanks to SD initiatives are still lacking (Gazzola et al., 2021). Previous research has underlined that the higher the number of funds obtained, the lower the level of accountability achieved by TSEs in their sustainability reports (Gazzola et al., 2021). In addition, to what extant such organizations are using their management control systems to monitor and report the results off their SD strategies in front of their donors' information needs requires more deepening (Cavicchi, 2023). In fact, literature has shown that TSEs do not use management control to support their strategies (Montanini and D'Andrea, 2020; Castellini, 2014). Nevertheless, scholars have called TSEs to develop an entrepreneurial mindset (Gibb and Adhikary, 2000) and multidimensional control systems enabling SD strategies (Marchi, 2019; Marchi, 2020). To address these gaps, a survey questionnaire has been sent to a sample of about 4000 TSEs belonging to the RUNTS, to investigate to what extent they are implementing, monitoring, and communicating the undertaken sustainability initiatives to their stakeholders, using their management control systems, and to what extent these latter are able to support the TSEs' strategies to attract funds. A total of 171 responses were collected. Results show a growing interest of donors towards sustainable SD principle, so that SD may become a relevant criterium for them to provide funds to NGOs. In line with donors' requirements TSEs are increasingly implementing SD projects and activities; nevertheless, these latter' ability to measure sustainability using their management control system and communicate it to stakeholders is still limited. Furthermore, the overall NGOs' ability to use planning and control systems to drive funding strategies is still scarce, highlighting weaknesses that may hinder their financial sustainability in the long run. From a practical perspective, the paper can provide recommendations to help TSEs engage in the transition towards sustainable development, to contribute to their own well-being and that of communities in achieving their social mission, in line with the mission-governance-accountability paradigm characterizing these organizations (Matacena, 2012).
- Subjects
ITALY; SUSTAINABLE development; NONPROFIT sector; SOCIAL impact assessment; MANAGEMENT controls
- Publication
Economia Aziendale Online, 2023, Vol 14, Issue 3, p1
- ISSN
2038-5498
- Publication type
Article