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Accounting for Social Change

A businesswoman contemplates lit bulbs against a night city background

Accounting for Social Change is participatory action research designed and conducted in collaboration with social entrepreneurs to address the sectors’ challenges around accountability. We seek to co-create a refined understanding of accountability experiences among social entrepreneurs in the North East and co-develop a pilot intervention to strengthen accountability practices for social enterprises in the region. 

Being accountable for social impact is important for social enterprises’ ability to learn, gain legitimacy, and secure funding, yet many social entrepreneurs struggle to measure and communicate their impact. We believe that understanding social accounting from practitioners’ perspectives and capabilities is crucial to creating effective solutions. Therefore, we work collaboratively with practice partners to help improve social entrepreneurs’ challenges with accountability.

We thank Responsible Research in Business and Management for funding this project. 

And by 2025, our research team of academics and social entrepreneurs aim to launch a working solution to the important but challenging practice of being accountable for social impact. 

For more information about Accounting for Social Change, contact Marieshka Barton.

The research team of academics and social entrepreneurs include: