Maureen McCulloch

Our current organisational structures, in both the commercial and the charitable sectors, suffer from a democratic deficit which acts as a barrier to the creation of a more equal society. The FairShares Model incorporates a straightforward process to recompense providers of non-financial capital to organisations. By doing so, it addresses questions of power and control that are left unanswered by methods which simply measure different sorts of capital used and/or generated by organisations. It is currently primarily concerned with adequately recompensing intellectual, human and social capital contributions in line with financial, and to enhance the management of natural capital through commitments to social auditing.

This thesis is a pragmatic exploration of concepts to be found in social economy organisations with a view to improving the connection between financial accounting practice and organisational impact in the social and physical world. It approaches financial accounting from a social economy perspective. The research draws on ideas from Aristotle, contrasting the pursuit of wealth for its own sake – chrematistics – with the pursuit of the wise allocation of resources towards a good society in which people can flourish – economics. It also uses Kantian concepts of creative agency and experience as essentially limited and emergent, to discuss the inevitability of diverse views of flourishing. The study develops through three stages. First, there is a qualitative case study exploration of ideas of purpose found in a range of social enterprises. Second, there is analysis of the findings using theories drawn from development studies and sociology. Third, there is a discussion of the implica...

In social economy research, the issue of ‘profit’ (whether to make and/or distribute it) is a dominant framing concept. We argue that this dominance (even negatively referenced) maintains the hegemony of financial capital and the ‘for-profit’ paradigm. By refusing to accept a definition that labels organisations in terms of what they are not, scholars of co-operative development, social enterprise and voluntary action can better understand the value-creating activities of third sector organisations (TSOs) on their own terms. We argue that scholars and policy makers are complicit in maintaining the dominance of financial capital and the for-profit paradigm when they adopt for-profit/non-profit language in debates about their field. The counter-narrative we offer is based on engagement with work from the International Integrated Reporting Council (IRC) and FairShares Association (FSA). By comparing six capitals defined by the IIRC with the FSA’s statement on ‘six forms of wealth’, we ...

Charities are often complex and networked, and face an increasingly demanding environment. Providing stakeholders with timely and adequate information on activities and impact is therefore challenging. Based on case studies of six UK charities, this paper finds that small/medium charities can use Enterprise Performance (EPM) systems to support providing such information, despite some challenges to their use of IT. There is an increasing awareness in charities of the importance of data, though technical aspects of data management are taxing for them. Compared to SMEs, charities share many of the challenges for IT-enhancement, but benefit from additional encouraging factors. EPM thinking, which is the ability to use an integrated and strategic approach to IT-support for EPM, is extant in charities' Leadership and Business Systems Thinking capabilities. Necessary capabilities related to IT sourcing are much weaker and need external support. The study identified two different approa...