Developing the Impact Measurement and Management process of Swedish University Holding Companies

Abstract: Global sustainability challenges are becoming increasingly more severe and the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set in Agenda 2030 is approaching rapidly. Venture capital investments in sustainable start-up businesses is considered to be a key success factor for a long-term sustainable development across the globe. Evaluating which early-stage companies that can be considered truly sustainable can however be difficult to determine for venture capitalists, especially in early-stage investment rounds. This study has aimed to increase the understanding of sustainability assessment processesutilized by Swedish university holding companies. Data collection was mainly executed through semi-structured interviews with representatives from six university holding companies, an industry association, and a limited partner. The main areas of interest have revolved around three distinct topics: how sustainability is currently assessed by university holding companies, what aspects that influence the assessment capability and how the sustainability assessment process could be improved. These investigation subjects are also closely related to the articulated research questions. Empirical findings indicate that university holding companies mainly rely on intuition and mapping of prospects’ business idea against the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations when assessing sustainability. The characteristics of prospects, the governmental entity responsibility and the organizational structure were all aspects that seemed to have great influence on the assessment capability. A five-stage impact measurement and management process was finally suggested for the university holding companies, consisting of: (1) reviewing the strategic mission; (2) conducting due diligence; (3) integrating metrics; (4) monitoring impact and; (5) evaluating final impact. Future studies are encouraged to adopt quantitative or longitudinal research approaches, while also including a greater number of interviewees from larger governmental institutions and impact-oriented investors, in an attempt to further generalize the findings of this study.