Themes

This theme focuses on measuring impact and "Integrated reporting.” Integrated reporting is a comprehensive form of reporting in which organizations indicate how they operate sustainably and socially. 

This helps to clarify and focus on the process of value creation. It also makes it possible to set clear, measurable goals and preconditions for policy and to evaluate the extent to which they are being achieved. This provides a basis for learning which policies work in practice. 

But how can we achieve more integrated reporting of the various dimensions of broad prosperity? And how can we measure the extent to which the activities of public and private organizations contribute to the realization of an inclusive and sustainable economy? 

The transition to an inclusive and sustainable economy requires entrepreneurs who aim to make an impact with their businesses. This can be an existing company or a new startup.  What drives entrepreneurs to contribute to broad prosperity? How do they realize that? What forms of leadership are appropriate? What adjustments are needed in the management of an existing company and how can the company best position itself in society? 

It can be a challenge to take sustainable steps as an entrepreneur without losing balance. How can potentially negative side effects of the company on other dimensions of broad prosperity be mitigated? How can we stimulate impact startups? How do we create optimal conditions for successful impact startups to grow?

Because governments, knowledge institutions, and companies—local and regional—often work together in chains and networks, it is important to also look at how broad prosperity can be governed jointly. How can public and private partners best collaborate to jointly achieve broad prosperity goals? 

Network Governance is about connecting or sharing information, resources, activities, and competencies in collaborations amongst disparate organizations. What does it take to work together productively to improve broad prosperity in the city and region? What does this require from the organizational capacity of parties? What is needed to facilitate that collaboration and what methodologies can be helpful to learn from each other's experiences and achieve results?

In our society, all kinds of institutions (formal and informal rules and laws) determine how we live together. These include not only the role of the state in the economy but also the tradition and general framework from which the government, business community, and society interact and from which socioeconomic policy is created. 

Our current institutions tend to be strongly focused on promoting material growth. The short term often prevails over the long term, and our institutions are highly compartmentalized, which makes it extra difficult to integrate broad prosperity goals into policy and to manage transitions in a coherent manner. We also see that large groups of citizens feel excluded from policies that directly affect their living and housing environment, which can lead to resistance and distrust. At the same time, we see an increasing interest in forms of collaboration based on a common interest such as cooperatives. 

This theme focuses on the question of what promoting broad prosperity means for the renewal of the institutions of our (consultation-based) economy. How can we better involve citizens? How do we give sustainability and the interests of future generations and those of groups elsewhere in the world a place at the consultation table? What does that require of our decision-making procedures? 

Central to the academic center is the question of how public and private organizations - individually and in cooperation - can better (re)steer toward wellbeing and broad prosperity. In short, towards an economy in which social value rather than profit is central.

Both governments and entrepreneurs want to make the transition from ambition to action, from concept to practice, from the use of broad prosperity as a (conceptual) framework to a guiding compass for planning and business strategy. To make that step properly, an underlying question must first be answered: What exactly do we mean by "Broad Prosperity"? How is this concept embedded in the literature? What is its relationship to other concepts such as, for example, gross domestic product, wellbeing, social welfare? And how do we operationalize broad prosperity for the practice of organizations in the public and private domain?

With a team of researchers from Tilburg from various human and social disciplines, we work together to answer these questions.