The evolution of Ben & Jerry's social reporting, from qualitative assessments by external experts to a more rigorous, metrics-based approach, should be of particular interest given the current movement towards integrated reporting for public companies.
Participants were required to share their projects in order to develop a double assessment: the code-analyzer Dr. Scratch and the #5c21 assessment by an external evaluator.
In addition, DEEWR (2009e) clarified that it is proposed that "each level will be defined by a set of criteria, including quantitative and qualitative assessment by an external assessor on key areas" (p. 29).
Finally, the assessment by an external team from an accredited third-party organization and final certification for compliance to ISO 9002 must be performed.
Despite these limitations, the study has the advantages of complementing participants' (subjective) self-assessments with evaluations by external observers and by SPs; including evaluations at different points in time, namely before and after the program; using two different samples of participants; and including SPs in controlled situations, as well as RPs in real situations.
Finally, credibility was tested by external assessment in seminars and in a Nordic research conference.
Assessments will be scrutinised by external monitors to ensure fairness.
1 2 Assessments are usually made by external accrediting or certifying agencies using standards developed in consultation with healthcare industry experts. 3 The participation of health services in accreditation programmes can be voluntary, legislatively mandated or encouraged through the use of financial incentives offered by governments or insurance agencies.
As recognised by the Basque government but also by external expert assessment, Basque innovation policies have had some of the ingredients of participatory and evidence-based policy-making for more than 30 years (Morgan, 2013).
