| Summary: | Companies largely play a role in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes by
engaging with stakeholders including employees, customers, investors, communities
and suppliers for financial, environmental and/or social impacts. Contribution quantum
is rarely assessed or calculated when it concerns CSR as it is explicitly recognised as
the willingness of an organisation to contribute to the community within the ethical
norms of charity although strategically CSR can increase revenues by decreasing risks
and costs. This study highlights the unique contributions of various stakeholders who
wish to make positive and sustainable impact on the socially challenged community –
the prisoners. One such engagement is the provision of undergraduate and postgraduate
programmes for prisoners in selected Malaysian prisons by Open University Malaysia
(OUM), with the partnership of the Prisons Department of Malaysia. It is an economic
empowerment programme to rehabilitate and educate its inmates and create
employment opportunities if and when they are released. Social Return On Investment
(SROI) is a method for measuring and communicating values that incorporates social,
environmental and economic impacts to stakeholders. It is an accounting of value
created by the activities and the contributions that made the activity possible. Results
will be expressed in a ratio of total benefits (a sum of all the outcomes) to total
investments (a sum of all costs involved). The purpose of this conceptual study is to
calculate the ratio of Ringgit Malaysia (RM) of social value created for every RM1
spent on its activities. Inmates who are accepted into OUM’s programmes attend
face-to-face tutorials conducted by OUM tutors and sit for examinations in the prison.
They are supported by OUM’s online learning management system where they manage
their studies, submit their assignments and access the digital library. (Abstract by authors)
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