Conclusions

There is increasing demand in society for the social impact generated by organizations to be measured. Monetizing it and integrating it with economic/financial information so as to optimize the sustainability of organizations themselves and of the socioeconomic system in which they operate is a major challenge. This paper identifies the problem and the main lines proposed for solving it to date. Based on the analytic-synthetic method and on cost-benefit analysis, and making four prior methodological assumptions—action research, stakeholder theory, a phenomenological outlook and fuzzy logic—a model is proposed for interpreting and monetizing the social value generated by organizations. The method proposed involves three distinct parts: first of all an underlying interpretative model called the Polyhedral Model, drawn up on the basis of considering organizations as networks of stakeholders who share resources and risks in order to generate some kind of joint economic, social or emotional value that is then distributed in a shared or individual fashion among those stakeholders. Secondly there is a practical model or application known as SPOLY, which comprises six steps structures to enable all types of trading, public-sector and social organizations to calculate the value that they generate for their stakeholders. Finally there is a proxy-based weighting system applied specifically to groups of variables. Altogether the method proposed can be seen as a new model of social accounting for sustainability.