Research practice

84 terms · each links to a full explanation with a worked example and the exam traps

Active investingAn investing approach that involves picking individual securities to try to beat the return of the broader asset class, rather than simply tracking it.
ActivitiesThe specific tasks and actions a project undertakes, using its inputs, to produce the desired outputs — the second link in the logic model chain.
Alternatives analysisThe Logical Framework Analysis step where possible strategies to achieve a project's objectives are identified, then compared on feasibility, cost-effectiveness, time and impact, to pick one.
AssumptionAn external condition a project's causal pathway depends on holding true — set out alongside the risk that would follow if it does not — as a distinct column in the Theory of Change table.
Backwards mappingThe step-by-step process, used to build a Theory of Change, of starting at a project's ultimate vision and working backwards to identify every precondition needed to reach it.
BACO RatioAcumen Fund's ratio, used in the Fully Integrated Model, for judging whether a social enterprise investment is a viable use of capital based on financial, technological and social leverage.
BaselineThe starting-point measurement of a project or programme, taken before an intervention begins, used to establish what actually changed as a result of it.
Baseline, mid-line and end-lineThe three-point measurement sequence — before, during and after an intervention — the assessor uses across the workbook's case studies to collate key metrics and evaluate what actually changed.
Benefit-Cost RatioA methodology developed by the Robin Hood Foundation to convert the outcomes of many different programmes into a single, monetised value of benefit created per dollar of cost.
Buy-side analystAn analyst employed by an asset manager — a mutual fund, pension fund, hedge fund, AIF, FPI or portfolio manager — whose recommendations are written for the employer's own fund managers, not the public.
Causal pathwayThe chain of reasoning linking a project's activities to its long-term goal, turning an organisation's theory about what needs to change and why into a testable sequence of cause and effect.
ChartistA trader who bases buy and sell decisions on historical price and volume patterns and their tendency to repeat, rather than on a company's underlying financial performance.
Checklist approachUsing a fixed, written list of qualitative, quantitative and valuation questions before every investment decision, so judgement stays disciplined rather than based on memory or mood.
Constraint on impactAn external factor — such as a market or demand-side mismatch — that limits how much impact a project can achieve, distinct from a challenge in conducting the social impact assessment itself.
ContributionOne of the five Impact Management Project dimensions: how an enterprise's reported effect compares to what would likely have happened anyway, measured through its depth and duration data categories.
Day traderA trader whose entire investment and disinvestment cycle is completed within a single day, taking no position home overnight.
Desk reviewThe first step of a social impact assessor's fieldwork: examining an organisation's existing documents — reports, policies, photographs, prior data — before any physical inspection or interview.
Direct beneficiariesThe people directly reached by a programme's activities — such as villagers, farmers and local business owners — as distinct from indirect beneficiaries who benefit at one remove.
Direct impactA change seen in the intended target group of a programme as a direct result of the intervention — material to assessing the social enterprise's performance and required in every impact report.
DIY (Do-it-Yourself) modelAn organisational model where a social enterprise develops its own social impact assessment tools in-house, customised to its stakeholders, drawing on tools other organisations have already built.
DMEONITI Aayog's Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office, which monitors and evaluates government schemes, sometimes outsourcing impact evaluation to external agencies across six named sectors.
Efficient Market HypothesisThe proposition that share prices already incorporate and reflect all relevant information — which, if true, leaves nothing for an analyst to find by studying that information.
EIC frameworkThe top-down fundamental research framework: analyse the Economy first, then the Industry, then the Company, before estimating intrinsic value and selecting a stock.
ESG frameworkA framework in which investors assess a company on environmental, social and corporate governance criteria, used as a screening filter before the usual financial analysis is done.
Exit/Takeover PlanA concrete plan, developed towards a project's end, for using the assets, capacities and partnerships built during the project to sustain its impact after the project itself is over.
External KPIsThe small subset of a project's KPIs — chosen from a larger internal set — that outcome funders and risk investors use for third-party assessment of a listed project.
Focus Group DiscussionA qualitative data-collection method in which a small group of stakeholders discuss an issue in a structured session led by a facilitator, used in SIA to gather insights and validate survey data.
Fully integrated modelThe organisational model in which impact assessment is built into a programme and run continuously rather than at the end, used mainly by social venture capital firms and impact investors.
Fundamental analysisEstimating what a share is worth from the profits and cash flows the business will generate, then buying only when the market price sits below that estimate.
Global Reporting InitiativeAn international non-profit set up in 1997 with UNEP, whose three sets of reporting standards — Universal, Sector and Topic — let any organisation report its economic, environmental and social performance.
ImpactThe broader, long-term change a project creates in people's lives and communities — positive or negative, intended or unintended — often visible only years later; the last link in the logic model.
Impact Management ProjectThe framework, used by the GIIN's IRIS+ system, that describes impact in five dimensions — What, Who, How Much, Contribution and Risk — with defined data categories for each.
Impact reportingCommunicating to stakeholders the difference an organisation has made; it may be an independent impact report, or part of an annual report or a sustainability report.
Independent directorA director who is neither part of management nor otherwise connected to the company — at least half the board where the chairman is executive, and one-third otherwise.
Independent research analystThe third of the workbook's analyst categories: one who works for a research originator or boutique firm separate from full-service investment firms, and sells research on subscription.
IndicatorA measurable sign or benchmark that tracks whether a project is achieving its goal, purpose and outputs; it may be qualitative or quantitative, and should meet the SMART criteria.
Indirect beneficiariesPeople who gain from a project without being reached by it directly — family members, neighbouring villages and the wider community — counted separately from direct beneficiaries.
InputsThe resources that go into a project to carry out its activities — money, people, materials, technology, community support — the first link in the logic model chain.
InterdependenciesThe problem that one intervention's outcomes depend on other interventions or on external factors, so the change observed cannot be credited to the project alone.
Investment efficiency KPIThe cost-per-unit-of-outcome measure in a project's KPI set — in the workbook's housing case study, total project cost divided by the number of families benefited.
IRIS+The impact accounting system offered by the Global Impact Investing Network, giving investors shared definitions of impact categories and themes plus core metric sets aligned to the SDGs.
Key Informant InterviewA one-to-one interview with someone who holds specialist knowledge of a project — a doctor, NGO staff member or panchayat official — used alongside focus groups and surveys in every Chapter 8 case study.
Key Performance IndicatorA metric chosen to track the most critical aspects of a social project's performance; split into external KPIs used by funders for third-party assessment and internal KPIs for management control.
Knowledge Management fundOne of four cost lines a listed social project must budget under the Logic Model: the money for monitoring and evaluation plus the cost of cross-learning and knowledge sharing between stakeholders.
Logical Framework AnalysisA structured tool for planning, monitoring and evaluating a project that breaks it into goal, outcomes, outputs, activities and inputs, each with indicators, means of verification and assumptions.
Logic ModelA visual, linear framework that sets out a project as a chain of inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impact — the framework Chapter 4 of the XXIII workbook is built around.
Margin of safetyThe gap between a security's estimated intrinsic value and the lower price paid for it — the cushion that protects the buyer when the estimate turns out to be wrong.
Means of verificationThe data sources, tools or methods used to measure an indicator — the evidence side of the logframe, fixed by funders with the social enterprise at the project design stage.
MoatThe durable competitive advantage that lets a company keep earning high returns while competitors try and fail to take its business.
Monetisation approachOne of three approaches to Social Impact Assessment, converting social outcomes into a rupee value so investors can compare returns, using methods like Social Return on Investment and cost-benefit analysis.
Mosaic analysisAssembling many individually insignificant pieces of information, public and non-public, into a critical insight — a practice the workbook states is acceptable.
Objective TreeThe tool built in Logical Framework Analysis's Objective Analysis step, mirroring the Problem Tree but restating every problem as a positive, SMART-aligned objective.
OutcomeThe specific, measurable, near-term change a project produces directly, sitting between output and impact in the workbook's logic-model chain — easy to mistake for the broader, longer-term impact.
OutputThe tangible, countable product or service a project's activities directly produce — immediate evidence of progress, but no guarantee that the project's actual purpose has been achieved.
Partnership modelAn organisational model for structuring impact evaluation built on mutual, often uncontracted commitment between a research team and a policy or implementing team, rather than a client-vendor contract.
Passive investingAn approach that buys a broad basket of securities, typically by tracking an index, to earn the return of the asset class as a whole rather than trying to beat it.
Pre-project implementation fundThe costed fund covering the mandatory gap between an SSE project's listing and the start of implementation — the "t0 year" — used for beneficiary selection, manpower planning and ground-level preparation.
Price targetA sell-side analyst's forecast of where a security's price will be over a stated time horizon — the number that turns a Buy, Hold or Sell rating into a specific, checkable prediction.
Primary researchFirst-hand information an analyst gathers directly — plant visits, and conversations with customers, suppliers or employees — rather than sourced from published reports.
Problem TreeThe diagnostic tool used in Logical Framework Analysis's Problem Analysis step, mapping a central problem's root causes and effects before any solution is designed.
Project goalThe ultimate, long-term vision a project seeks under Logical Framework Analysis — broad and aspirational, remaining the guiding reference for every decision even though it may outlast a single project cycle.
Qualitative approachOne of three approaches to Social Impact Assessment, using tools like Theory of Change, interviews, focus groups and case studies to reveal the deeper, in-depth nature of social change.
Quantitative approachOne of three approaches to Social Impact Assessment, using surveys and statistical analysis to process large volumes of data into results stakeholders can quantify and compare.
Quantitative researchAn approach to studying companies or markets built on statistical and numerical methods — time series, regression and econometrics — rather than reading qualitative business factors.
Research reportA document presenting an investment idea — analysis plus a recommendation. SEBI excludes market commentary, index discussion, internal notes and statistical summaries from the definition.
Sampling unitThe minimum unit of observation in a social impact assessment's sample design — a social unit such as a family, or a geographical unit such as a village — the basic building block behind every sample figure.
Secondary researchInformation an analyst gathers from already-published sources — annual reports, industry journals and market research — rather than collecting it first-hand.
Sell-side analystAn analyst at a firm offering investment banking, broking or advisory services who publishes research in the public domain with a buy, hold or sell call and a price target.
SMARTThe goal-setting criteria used to write objectives and indicators in a Logical Framework Analysis: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
Social Project Monitoring FrameworkThe engagement element, built on Theory of Change or the Logical Framework Approach, that maps a project's inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impact against six workbook-defined evaluation parameters.
Social Return on InvestmentA monetisation method that expresses a social project's benefits as a rupee value, built on the assessor's Impact Map, so returns from very different social enterprises can be compared.
Social sectorIndia's non-profit or third sector — NGOs, NPOs, Section 8 companies and social enterprises working on human development areas like education, health and sanitation, distinct from government and for-profit business.
StakeholderAny group or individual who can affect, or is affected by, an organisation achieving its objectives — beneficiaries, staff, board members, funders, government and the local community.
Starvation cycleThe pattern where donors fund only an NPO's programmes, forcing it to pay rent, salaries and other overheads from its own thin resources, which starves it of the capacity to grow.
SustainabilityMeeting present needs without harming the ability of future generations to meet their own — the Brundtland Commission's 1987 definition, split by the workbook into environmental, social and economic dimensions.
Sustainable Development GoalsThe UN's 17 goals for 2030, adopted in 2015, that India's social sector is expected to advance — and against which India shows a large, workbook-cited funding and performance gap.
SWOT analysisA framework listing a company's Strengths and Weaknesses (internal) against the Opportunities and Threats (external) in its environment, to judge growth potential and resilience.
Systemic impactImpact felt across a whole system, discipline or geography rather than on one target group — takes a medium- to long-term view, judged mainly through past-performance trends.
Target communityThe area or population an NPO or Social Enterprise establishes as its intervention's focus — the group direct impact is measured against, distinct from the wider reach of systemic impact.
Theory of ChangeA structured, narrative, backwards-mapping method that sets out the causal pathway from a project's activities through intermediate outcomes to its ultimate impact, with its assumptions made explicit.
TraderA market participant who profits from the spread between buying and selling price without needing the underlying value to change — motivated by price patterns, not by a company's fundamentals.
Unbiased EstimateThe technical definition of an efficient market price: the market price is an unbiased estimate of a security's true value, so deviations are random rather than one-sided.
UN Global CompactA UN initiative under which over 9,500 companies commit to ten principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and align their strategies with the SDGs.
Withdrawal protocolA plan, set at the project-design stage, for how a Social Enterprise exits so that its outcomes become lasting impact, costed through the Logic Model's Exit/Takeover Protocol Fund.