Sequence 03
Module 9

Enterprise Contribution

Module Overview

How can investors assess whether companies are causing changes for stakeholders and the natural environment that likely would not have occurred otherwise?

This module considers how to build Enterprise Contribution into an impact rating. Enterprise Contribution deals with outcome counterfactuals: what outcome would stakeholders have experienced in the absence of this enterprise? This question is as important to consider as it is difficult to answer definitively.

Key Concepts: Counterfactuals, Spectrum of Evidence, Scenario Analysis

When it comes to assessing counterfactuals, the perfect often becomes the enemy of the good. Experimental studies such as randomized control trials are not the only way to consider what would have happened in the absence of an enterprise.

Building an Impact Rating: Enterprise Contribution

Economists and evaluators define ‘impact’ as a change in outcome that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. The Enterprise Contribution dimension of an impact rating integrates this kind of counterfactual thinking into investment decision-making.

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