TY - JOUR
T1 - Inscribing Impact
T2 - Measurement Practices in the Making of Moral Markets
AU - Casasnovas, Guillermo
AU - Hehenberger, Lisa
AU - Papageorgiou, Kyriaki
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Management Studies published by Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - Moral markets, designed to generate positive impact on pressing social and environmental challenges, are transforming traditional market practices by including more than economic considerations in their operations. The importance of these markets continues to grow as investors, regulators, and consumers increasingly put pressure on companies to account for their broader social and environmental impacts. However, the absence of standardized norms and tools to measure impact may erode trust and lead to ‘impact washing’. This paper examines the process of impact inscription – how actors embed their principles, objectives, and values into artefacts such as measurement tools that shape moral market practices. Drawing on qualitative, in-depth data from Spain's emerging impact investing market, we unpack impact inscription and identify three key mechanisms: demarcating moral market boundaries, accounting for social issues, and redefining governance structures. By driving changes in scope, roles, and incentives, these mechanisms influence the emergence of moral markets and can result in either disruptive change (with the risk of paralysis) or incremental change (with the risk of goal displacement). Our study also prompts a deeper reflection on how measurement tools embed value judgments, shaping how markets internalize social and environmental externalities and integrate them into market exchanges.
AB - Moral markets, designed to generate positive impact on pressing social and environmental challenges, are transforming traditional market practices by including more than economic considerations in their operations. The importance of these markets continues to grow as investors, regulators, and consumers increasingly put pressure on companies to account for their broader social and environmental impacts. However, the absence of standardized norms and tools to measure impact may erode trust and lead to ‘impact washing’. This paper examines the process of impact inscription – how actors embed their principles, objectives, and values into artefacts such as measurement tools that shape moral market practices. Drawing on qualitative, in-depth data from Spain's emerging impact investing market, we unpack impact inscription and identify three key mechanisms: demarcating moral market boundaries, accounting for social issues, and redefining governance structures. By driving changes in scope, roles, and incentives, these mechanisms influence the emergence of moral markets and can result in either disruptive change (with the risk of paralysis) or incremental change (with the risk of goal displacement). Our study also prompts a deeper reflection on how measurement tools embed value judgments, shaping how markets internalize social and environmental externalities and integrate them into market exchanges.
KW - Impact investing
KW - inscription
KW - measurement
KW - moral markets
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85214694337&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/joms.13184
DO - 10.1111/joms.13184
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85214694337
SN - 0022-2380
JO - Journal of Management Studies
JF - Journal of Management Studies
ER -