Introduction

This chapter will present an overview of the book and introduce the concepts of social value and social impact in modern society. Social impact and social value are vague concepts with a plethora of definitions and methodologies, resulting in poor understanding for organisations. This chapter covers these terminologies and definitions, acknowledging differences internationally, especially the non-global nature of the term ‘social impact’ itself. By exploring social impact and social value, this chapter seeks to define social value in a way that can help promote the benefits of impact measurement, whilst considering the limitations. Furthermore, this chapter introduces the key debates and perspectives that are explored in the proceeding chapters [Relevant SDGs: SDG17: Partnerships for the Goals]