Evaluating Innovation in European Rural Development Programmes: Application of the Social Return on Investment (SROI) Method

Paul Courtney, John Powell · 2020 · Sustainability

Summary. This paper evaluates social innovation outcomes from England's Rural Development Programme using Social Return on Investment methodology. Analysis of 196 beneficiaries found that innovation support generated £170 million in benefits through individual behavior changes, operational improvements, relational shifts, and institutional reforms. The authors argue that traditional performance measures fail to capture social innovation's full value and call for comprehensive evaluation approaches that better connect innovation outcomes to rural policy decisions.

Read the original

Cite this article

Courtney, P., & Powell, J.. (2020). Evaluating Innovation in European Rural Development Programmes: Application of the Social Return on Investment (SROI) Method. Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072657

@article{courtney-2020-evaluating-innovation-european-rural-development,
  title   = {Evaluating Innovation in European Rural Development Programmes: Application of the Social Return on Investment (SROI) Method},
  author  = {Paul Courtney and John Powell},
  journal = {Sustainability},
  year    = {2020},
  doi     = {10.3390/su12072657},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072657}
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Evaluating Innovation in European Rural Development Programmes: Application of the Social Return on Investment (SROI) Method
AU  - Paul Courtney
AU  - John Powell
JO  - Sustainability
PY  - 2020
DO  - 10.3390/su12072657
UR  - https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072657
ER  -

Details

DOI: 10.3390/su12072657
Countries: United Kingdom
Regions: Europe
Categories: policy, innovation-theory, regional-innovation-systems
Added: 2026-04-28