Bridgeman, J and Loosemore, M (2021) Designing theoretically and evidence-based social procurement programmes in construction: A capability empowerment approach. In: Scott, L and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 37th Annual ARCOM Conference, 6-7 September 2021, Online Event, UK.
Abstract
Social procurement policies require companies to develop and implement initiatives to create social value, yet many programmes created in response to these emerging policies lack a reliable empirical and theoretical foundation. Addressing this problem and brining a new theoretically informed evidence-based approach to social procurement research in construction, this paper presents a theoretically informed and methodologically robust social return on investment (SROI) analysis of a construction training programme developed to reduce the risk of youth homelessness. Mobilising Sen and Nussbaum's Capability Empowerment Approach, the paper provides robust, testable and transparent evidence of the social impact of the programme on the lives of the homeless people who went through it. Robust theoretically informed social procurement initiatives are critically important in ensuring that social procurement policies have their intended social outcomes.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | social procurement; theory of change; sroi; employment; youth |
| Index terms: | social impact, evidence, social value, employment, programme, procurement policy, empowerment, social return on investment |
| Subjects: | sociology, project controls, management, public policy, evaluation and assessment methods, social impact assessment |
| Topics: | Urban Studies, Human Resources, Time Control, Research Practice, Governance |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 CTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here