Inspiring other reflections

The investigation has the merit of opening up new research horizons. For the future Michel Marée and Sybille Mertens have especially in their line of sight a deeper fine-tuning of the comparison between SME and the non-profit associations. ‘The non-profit sector is an object of study which is the source of much reflection. Understanding better the functioning of a non-profit organisation can lead to a better understanding of a SME which gets involved in social responsibility (which we today call ‘corporate social responsibility’, or CSR), and which pays better attention to its environment, to its workers and which, finally, begins to have points in common with a non-profit organisation. We are sensing that the economic system will move in the direction of structures and organisations which will no longer restrict themselves to selling goods and services without being concerned about the rest. Beyond financial indicators and financial profitability, society impacts will take on importance, notably in terms of investment: a positive impact for society (social, environmental) could be the reason for a good investment. More and more classical public banks are taking an interest in these non-tangible and non-financial impacts. It is in this direction that our research work could influence the traditional sector and inspire thought processes across society.’ One of the probable next stages for the flagship: suggesting an analysis grid for the ‘society performance’ of associations – and, more generally, of SME which are getting involved in CSR – in other words impacts which go beyond solely financial considerations. ‘As for years we have been working on an evaluation of the society impacts of non-profit organisations, we are thinking about the possibilities of measuring these impacts, about their potentialities but also about their limits.’