Catalog of Approaches to Impact Measurement: Assessing Social Impact in Private Ventures

To inform action impact investors could take to measure impact in a coordinated manner, The Rockefeller Foundation commissioned the study of impact assessment approaches presented here.It is natural to hope to find a single, turnkey solution that can address all measurement needs. In this study we conducted a survey of impact investors and complemented it with seven years of experience in the field of impact investing to discover what these investors want from impact measurement, and conducted in-depth interviews with over twenty entities that have developed and implemented approaches to measuring impact. Our survey of existing approaches was thorough but surely is not comprehensive; however the approaches are a good representation of the current state of play. What we found is that there is not one single measurement answer. Instead the answer depends on what solution is most appropriate for a particular investor's "impact profile" defined as the investor's level of risk tolerance and desired financial return, the particular sector in which the investor operates, geography, and credibility level of information about impact that the investor requires

Just below the surface: developing knowledge management systems using the paradigm of the noetic prism

In this paper we examine how the principles embodied in the paradigm of the noetic prism can illuminate the construction of knowledge management systems. We draw on the formalism of the prism to examine three successful tools: frames, spreadsheets and databases, and show how their power and also their shortcomings arise from their domain representation, and how any organisational system based on integration of these tools and conversion between them is inevitably lossy. We suggest how a late-binding, hybrid knowledge based management system (KBMS) could be designed that draws on the lessons learnt from these tools, by maintaining noetica at an atomic level and storing the combinatory processes necessary to create higher level structure as the need arises. We outline the “just-below-the-surface” systems design, and describe its implementation in an enterprise-wide knowledge-based system that has all of the conventional office automation features

Analyzing the solutions of DEA through information visualization and data mining techniques: SmartDEA framework

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has proven to be a useful tool for assessing efficiency or productivity of organizations, which is of vital practical importance in managerial decision making. DEA provides a significant amount of information from which analysts and managers derive insights and guidelines to promote their existing performances. Regarding to this fact, effective and methodologic analysis and interpretation of DEA solutions are very critical. The main objective of this study is then to develop a general decision support system (DSS) framework to analyze the solutions of basic DEA models. The paper formally shows how the solutions of DEA models should be structured so that these solutions can be examined and interpreted by analysts through information visualization and data mining techniques effectively. An innovative and convenient DEA solver, SmartDEA, is designed and developed in accordance with the proposed analysis framework. The developed software provides a DEA solution which is consistent with the framework and is ready-to-analyze with data mining tools, through a table-based structure. The developed framework is tested and applied in a real world project for benchmarking the vendors of a leading Turkish automotive company. The results show the effectiveness and the efficacy of the proposed framework

Industry Advisory Board Assessment and Evaluation

Virtually all academic programs in any given discipline have an Industry Advisory Board (IAB) whose purpose is to add value to the academic program. It must be noted that the term “IAB” is generic in nature and refers to any Industry Advisory Board, Committee, Council, or otherwise named advisory group. An IAB exists to advise, assist, support, and advocate for their associated academic program and the constituents of that program. Similar to what accreditation requires of an academic program, an IAB must periodically assess and evaluate their performance, which can lead to corrective actions and have a profound impact upon an IAB and the academic program. The contents of this paper describe two methods that an IAB can use for assessment and evaluation, namely IAB Self-Assessment and IAB Benchmarking

The Intellectual and Technical Property Components of pro-Vitamin A Rice (GoldenRiceTM): A Preliminary Freedom-To-Operate Review

Rice is a staple food for millions of people, predominantly in Asia, but lacks essential nutritional components such as Vitamin A. This is very important for over 180 million children and women of child bearing age who suffer from Vitamin A deficiency in Asia alone. For this reason, an improvement was made under an effort led by Profs. Ingo Potrykus and Peter Beyer by inserting several genes into rice to produce an improved product called GoldenRice. Because GoldenRice has the potential to be easily integrated into the farming systems of the world\u27s poorer regions, the advent of GoldenRice promises to go a long way towards solving Asia\u27s Vitamin A deficiency problem in an effective, inexpensive, and sustainable way. As a result of the increasing complexity of the intellectual property (IP) framework under which the international agricultural development community operates, the Rockefeller Foundation funded an ISAAA project to conduct a selective Freedom-To-Operate (FTO) analysis of GoldenRice with the objectives of reviewing the IP and Technical Property (TP; or tangible property) components associated with GoldenRice; providing institutions interested in distributing GoldenRice with the information needed to develop strategic options for handling the proprietary science embedded in the product; and developing possible alternative strategies on how the IP/TP constraints could be managed effectively. Any FTO opinion is a risk management opinion and its results vary on a country-by-country basis. It is a dynamic opinion; never a definitive answer. Hence the present document serves as an analytical framework that can serve as the basis of a legal FTO review