Social return on investment—Development and convergence

•Social return on investment (SROI) is a relatively new approach to assessing the value created by human activity.•This paper explores the development of SROI since its creation in 1996 and concludes by outlining areas for future development.•SROI is compared with mainstream global approaches to generating standardized information that informs resource allocation decisions, financial accounting in general, sustainability accounting in the private sector and cost benefit analysis in the public sector. Social return on investment (SROI) is a relatively new approach to assessing the value created by human activity. This paper explores the development of SROI since its creation in 1996 and concludes by outlining areas for future development. SROI is compared with mainstream global approaches to generating standardized information that informs resource allocation decisions, financial accounting in general, sustainability accounting in the private sector and cost benefit analysis in the public sector.