This article proposes a new approach to the assessment of outcome effects of MultiStakeholder Initiatives in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility. Based on the conceptual distinction between output, outcome, and impact effectiveness, we develop a set of indicators that allows the differentiated assessment of outcome effects related to MultiStakeholder Initiatives. Furthermore, we apply this set of indicators in an empirical assessment of the UN Global Compact. Our empirical study utilizes a quantitative survey completed by members of the UN Global Compact Network Germany as well as qualitative interviews. Our results show a differentiated picture of the outcome effectiveness of the UN Global Compact, highlighting a paradoxical combination of strong outcomes on strategic management levels together with significantly weaker enforcement outcomes, such as employee trainings or measurement of goal attainment.

CONCLUSIONS

The aim of this paper was first to introduce empirical indicators for assessing the outcome effectiveness of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives. By developing and presenting conceptual categories as well as empirical indicators we aim to suggest an answer to our first research question: How can the outcome effectiveness of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives be assessed in an empirical way? As such outcome indicators were missing so far in the existing literature, our contribution will allow more differentiated assessments of MSIs in the future. Moreover, it will support and enable the evaluation of other forms of governance and may therefore be applied across inter- and transdisciplinary fields. Second, we aimed to demonstrate the application of our set of indicators to the example of a specific MSI, the UN Global Compact. We did this to assess the outcome effectiveness of the UN GC as well as to demonstrate the differentiated picture of effectiveness that our set of indicators can draw. To our knowledge, our study is the first one that applies the conceptual differentiation of the term effectiveness (outputs, outcomes and impacts) to the field of business studies and provides outcome indicators suitable for the assessment of MSIs. In addition, we demonstrate diversified outcome effects of the UN GC in different corporate management functions, which to our knowledge has also not previously been accomplished.