JP7678596B2 - SOCIAL IMPACT PRESENTATION SYSTEM, INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a social impact presentation system, an information processing device, and an information processing method, and is particularly suitable for use in a system that visualizes the social impact created by businesses conducted by recipients of funding who receive funding from funders such as investors.

Since the "Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)" were proposed at the 2015 United Nations Summit, there has been growing attention on businesses that are more public-interest and sustainable for the long term. In recent years, investment activities known as impact investment have also been attracting attention. Impact investment is an investment activity that aims not only to obtain economic returns, but also to simultaneously create social impacts, which are social or environmental outcomes, through business or activities. Against this background, there is a demand for the creation of a system that accelerates investment in businesses that are beneficial to society by visualizing the social impacts created by the activities of business operators in response to investments by investors.

In response to this, a technology is known that aims to evaluate and visualize the social impact of a business with little effort (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In the business evaluation device described in Patent Document 1, a business theory creation program generates a business theory template based on information extracted from a database according to the type of business, and a user inputs the results and outcomes of the business using the indicators set in this business theory template. Then, a social impact evaluation program generates an evaluation result of the social impact of the business by converting the input results and outcomes of the business into a quantitative and qualitative format. In addition, a report creation program generates a report template, and a user uses this report template to input the evaluation result of the social impact of the business generated as described above and create an impact report on the business.

JP 2022-77772 A

According to the description in Patent Document 1, by using the technology described in Patent Document 1, it is possible to reduce the human and time burden required for the social impact evaluation of various businesses, and also to provide standard methods and evaluation criteria for the social impact evaluation of various businesses. However, while Patent Document 1 discloses the creation of reports according to various report formats for report recipients (governments and licensing organizations), project implementers, project beneficiaries, project evaluators, and supporters (companions) of evaluators, it does not disclose the appropriate calculation of the impact amount for investors who have made impact investments.

The technology described in Patent Document 1 aims to ensure the appropriateness of social impact evaluation by having two or more users with different user attributes evaluate, but the more types of evaluators there are, the higher the costs become. In particular, in impact investments, where the investment amount per investee is small, it is difficult to make a profit and maintain the investment, so it is necessary to be able to accurately calculate the impact amount even with a limited number of evaluators.

The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and aims to make it possible to appropriately calculate the social impact created by a business undertaken by a recipient of funding provided by a funder such as an investor.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention obtains impact-related information that contributes to quantifying the social impact created by a business conducted by a recipient of funding provided by a funder at multiple regular or irregular intervals from the start of fund management, and calculates quantitative impact, which is a quantitative social impact, at multiple intervals based on the obtained impact-related information.

According to the present invention configured as described above, the quantitative social impact created by a business conducted by a recipient of funding provided by a funder who provides funds through investment, donations, loans, etc. can be calculated by monitoring the business at multiple regular or irregular intervals, so that the social impact can be calculated appropriately.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of a social impact presentation system according to a first embodiment. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an impact management server according to the first embodiment; FIG. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a planned amount of quantitative impact. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of information in which planned and actual amounts of quantitative impacts are visualized as cumulative values. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a report created by a report creation unit. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation of the impact management server according to the first embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of a social impact presentation system according to a second embodiment. FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an impact management server according to a second embodiment. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation of the impact management server according to the second embodiment. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of a social impact presentation system according to a third embodiment. FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an impact management server according to a third embodiment. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a plurality of report formats. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operation of the impact management server according to the third embodiment.

First Embodiment
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a social impact presentation system according to the first embodiment. As shown in Fig. 1, the social impact presentation system of this embodiment includes an investor terminal 10, an investment target terminal 20A, an investment manager terminal 20B, an association manager terminal 20C, an information collection server 30, an investment management server 40, and an impact management server 100. The impact management server 100 corresponds to an information processing device in the claims.

The investor terminal 10 is a terminal used by an investor making an impact investment in a desired business or an operator (which may be either an individual or a corporation) that carries out that business, and is configured as a personal computer, smartphone, tablet, or the like. The investor terminal 10 is equipped with a web browser, and through the web browser, the investor can view web pages provided by the investment management server 40 or the impact management server 100 and input information through the web pages.

The investment target terminal 20A is a terminal used by the investment target who receives investment from the investor, and is configured as a personal computer, smartphone, tablet, or the like. The investment target terminal 20A is equipped with a web browser, and the investment target can use the web browser to view web pages provided by the information collection server 30 and input information through the web pages.

Note that, in this embodiment, a case will be described in which a business operator conducts a business by receiving investment from an investor, but the present invention can be widely applied to cases in which a business operator conducts a business by receiving funding from a funder. A funder can be any type of funder, including investors, those who provide donations, subsidies, grants, etc., and those who lend at financial institutions, and a funded person refers to a person for whom an impact is created by receiving the provided funds. Therefore, in the following explanation, an investor can be read as a funder, and an investment target can be read as a funded person. Furthermore, investment management can be read as fund management.

The operations manager terminal 20B is a terminal used by the operations manager who manages the operations of the business conducted by the investment target, and is configured as a personal computer, smartphone, tablet, or the like. The operations manager terminal 20B is equipped with a web browser, and the operations manager can use the web browser to view web pages provided by the information collection server 30 and input information through the web pages.

The association manager terminal 20C is a terminal used by the manager of the association related to the business conducted by the investment targets, and is configured as a personal computer, smartphone, tablet, or the like. Multiple investment targets belong to the association, and the investment targets carry out their business under the management of the association. The association manager terminal 20C is equipped with a web browser, and the association manager can use the web browser to view web pages provided by the information collection server 30 and input information through the web pages.

In the following explanation, the investment target terminal 20A, the operations manager terminal 20B and the association manager terminal 20C may be collectively referred to as business associate terminals 20. The investment target, operations manager and association manager may be collectively referred to as business associates. Depending on the content of the business carried out by the investment target, at least one of the operations manager and association manager may not be involved in the implementation of the business. In this case, at least one of the operations manager terminal 20B and the association manager terminal 20C may not be present.

The information collection server 30 collects from the business associate terminal 20 impact-related information that contributes to visualizing the social impact created by the business conducted by the investment target that has received investment from the investor. The impact-related information includes at least information that contributes to quantifying the social impact, and may further include information that contributes to qualifying the social impact. Details of the impact-related information will be described later. Note that in the following explanation, an individual who manages whether an investment is actually creating both a social impact and an economic return from the investor's perspective may be referred to as an investment manager. In some cases, the business associate and the investment manager are the same person, but for convenience, the term investment manager will be used when explaining from the investor's perspective.

The information collection server 30 collects information that contributes to the quantification and qualification of social impacts from the business associated party terminal 20 in a prescribed format. For example, the information collection server 30 provides the business associated party terminal 20 with an information input webpage in a prescribed format including prescribed information input items, and collects impact-related information input from the business associated party terminal 20 through the information input webpage. By collecting information based on the prescribed format, a certain level of information quality can be ensured. In particular, information that contributes to the qualification of social impacts is likely to vary more than information that contributes to quantification, but by collecting information based on the prescribed format, it is possible to ensure a certain level of quality.

A web page for inputting information in a predetermined format is prepared in advance, for example, for each business category. By selecting a category that corresponds to the business to be implemented, a business-related person causes the web browser of the business-related person terminal 20 to display the information input web page corresponding to the selected category, and the business-related person enters impact-related information in the information input fields included in the information input web page and transmits it to the information collection server 30. The information collection server 30 provides the impact-related information collected from the business-related person terminal 20 to the impact management server 100.

The investment management server 40 is a device for managing investments from investors. For example, the investment management server 40 executes processes related to crowdfunding. Processes related to crowdfunding include processes related to soliciting business support requests from investment targets, processes related to soliciting investment from investors for the supported business, processes related to providing funds procured from multiple investors to investment targets and managing them, processes related to managing the results of the investment targets' business implementation, and processes for calculating economic returns to investors based on the results of the business implementation. The investment management server 40 provides at least a portion of the information related to investments obtained through these processes to the impact management server 100.

The investments managed by the investment management server 40 are not limited to crowdfunding. Any fund for a business may be used, for example, a fund in the form of an investment trust or investment partnership implemented by a financial institution. Furthermore, the investment does not necessarily have to be a fund, and may be a 1:1 investment from an investor consisting of one person or one organization to an investment target consisting of one person or one organization.

The various information provided to the impact management server 100 from the information collection server 30 and the investment management server 40 is managed by linking it to, for example, an investor ID that uniquely identifies each investor and an investment target ID that uniquely identifies each investment target. Based on the information provided from the information collection server 30 and the investment management server 40, the impact management server 100 executes various processes related to visualizing the social impact generated by the business conducted by the investment target that has received investment from the investor. The specific contents of the various processes will be described later with reference to Figure 2 and subsequent figures.

In this embodiment, the impact management server 100 visualizes the social impact in the form of a report and provides the report to the investor terminal 10. The report may be provided to the investor through a web page, by sending an email (either as a description in the email body or as an attachment), or by sending a printed document to the investor's address.

Here, a configuration has been described in which the impact management server 100 and the information collection server 30 exist separately, but the impact management server 100 may have the functions of the information collection server 30. Also, here, a configuration has been described in which the impact management server 100 acquires information regarding investments from the investment management server 40, but the information may be acquired by another means. For example, the information regarding investments may be acquired by importing information exported from the investment management server 40 to a specified data file, or by an operator manually inputting the necessary information based on information exported from the investment management server 40 to a specified data file or printed out information. Similarly, the impact management server 100 may have the functions of the investment management server 40.

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the impact management server 100 according to the first embodiment. As shown in Figure 2, the impact management server 100 according to the first embodiment includes, as its functional configuration, an impact-related information acquisition unit 11, an investment-related information acquisition unit 12, a quantitative impact calculation unit 13, a qualitative impact evaluation unit 14, a report creation unit 15, and a report presentation unit 16. The quantitative impact calculation unit 13 includes, as its specific functional configuration, a planned impact calculation unit 13A and an actual impact calculation unit 13B.

The above-mentioned functional blocks 11 to 16 can be configured using any of hardware, DSP (Digital Signal Processor), and software. For example, when configured using software, the above-mentioned functional blocks 11 to 16 are actually configured with a computer's CPU, RAM, ROM, etc., and are realized by the operation of a program stored in a storage medium such as the RAM, ROM, hard disk, or semiconductor memory.

The impact-related information acquisition unit 11 acquires information that contributes to quantifying the social impact created by the business conducted by the investment target that has received investment from the investor (information that contributes to visualizing the quantitative social impact) from the information collection server 30. The impact-related information acquisition unit 11 also acquires information that contributes to qualifying the social impact created by the business conducted by the investment target (information that contributes to visualizing the qualitative social impact) from the information collection server 30. In the following explanation, quantitative social impact is referred to as quantitative impact, and qualitative social impact is referred to as qualitative impact. Furthermore, information that contributes to quantifying and qualifying social impact is referred to as impact-related information.

The investment-related information acquisition unit 12 acquires information about investments (hereinafter referred to as investment-related information) from the investment management server 40. The investment-related information includes information about the investor, information about the investment target, information indicating the investment management period, information indicating the economic return to the investor, etc.

The impact-related information acquisition unit 11 and the investment-related information acquisition unit 12 acquire impact-related information and investment-related information at multiple regular or irregular intervals from the start of investment management, and store and preserve the acquired information in a storage medium. The start of investment management refers to, for example, the end of the investment solicitation period for crowdfunding or an investment management fund for institutional investors, when funds raised from multiple investors are provided to the investment target and management begins. The start of investment management can be recognized from the investment-related information acquired by the investment-related information acquisition unit 12 from the investment management server 40.

The multiple regular or irregular timings for acquiring information are, for example, the timings for creating a report on social impact. Regular timing is, for example, once a month. Irregular timing is a timing for creating a special report other than the regular timing. The irregular timing can be arbitrarily specified by, for example, the administrator of the impact management server 100. Note that, since a report may be created a certain period of time after the information is acquired, the timing of information acquisition and report creation do not necessarily have to be completely consistent. Furthermore, in addition to being used to create the above-mentioned report, the information acquired at multiple times may also be used only for the investment manager to check whether impact is being created. In the latter case, a report for investors may not be created.

The quantitative impact calculation unit 13 calculates the quantitative impact created by the business implementation of the investment target based on the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11 and the investment-related information acquired by the investment-related information acquisition unit 12. Here, the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 calculates the quantitative impact for each of the multiple timings described above. The quantitative impact calculation unit 13 stores and saves the calculated quantitative impact in a storage medium so that it can be used for creating reports this time and thereafter.

The quantitative impact calculation unit 13 calculates two types of quantitative impacts using the planned impact calculation unit 13A and the actual impact calculation unit 13B. The planned impact calculation unit 13A calculates the planned amount of quantitative impact that may be generated by the implementation of the business during a specified reporting period from the start of investment management. The actual impact calculation unit 13B calculates the actual amount of quantitative impact that is actually generated by the investment target's implementation of the business after the start of investment management, for each of the multiple timings described above.

The reporting period is the period set as the period for calculating the quantitative impact to be included in the report, and includes the investment management period (fund management period) and the monitoring period after the end of the management period. The fund management period is determined in advance for each crowdfunding or investment fund implemented by the investment management server 40, and information indicating the management period is included in the investment-related information. Alternatively, the administrator of the investment management server 40 can arbitrarily set the management period depending on the content of the business implemented by the investment target, etc.

The monitoring period is the period during which the calculation of the actual amount of quantitative impact continues even after the end of the fund management period. The monitoring period may be determined in advance for each crowdfunding carried out by the investment management server 40, or may be determined arbitrarily by the administrator of the impact management server 100 depending on the content of the business carried out by the investment target, etc.

The planned amount of quantitative impact may be calculated for a period longer than the combined period of the fund management period and the monitoring period, in which case the reporting period further includes the period after the monitoring period ends. The period for which the planned impact calculation unit 13A calculates the planned amount of quantitative impact is the entire reporting period. The multiple timings for which the actual impact calculation unit 13B calculates the actual amount of quantitative impact include timing during the fund management period and timing during the monitoring period.

In this embodiment, the investor, the investment target, and the content of the business conducted by the investment target are arbitrary. As an example, the investment target is an individual who conducts a business with investment from an investor, and the quantitative impact calculated by the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 can include the increase in income obtained by the business conducted by the investment target using equipment purchased by taking out a loan, from the original income before the business was started.

In this case, the investment target is assumed to be a poor individual who does not have the funds of his/her own to purchase the equipment necessary to carry out the business and is unable to take out a loan. If this type of investment target takes out a loan using the funds raised from the fund to purchase the equipment and start a business, it is expected that income will increase significantly. The quantitative impact calculation unit 13 calculates this increase in income as the quantitative impact.

Here, the loan repayment period is set to the same period as the fund management period. The quantitative impact calculation unit 13 calculates the increase in income obtained by subtracting the original income before the start of the business from the income after loan repayment as the quantitative impact during the fund management period. Income after loan repayment is the amount obtained by subtracting the monthly or annual loan repayment amount from the actual income obtained by implementing the business. In addition, the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 calculates the increase in income obtained by subtracting the original income before the start of the business from the actual income during the period after the end of the fund management period as the quantitative impact.

Figure 3 is a diagram showing a schematic example of the planned amount of quantitative impact calculated by the planned impact calculation unit 13A. In Figure 3, the horizontal axis indicates time, and the vertical axis indicates monthly income. In the example of Figure 3, the management period is set to 36 months from the start of fund management. This fund management period is the same period as the loan repayment period. In addition, the monitoring period is set to several months from the end of the fund management period. In addition, the reporting period is set to the period from the start of fund management to the end of the useful life of the equipment purchased by the investment target. In this case, the reporting period is longer than the sum of the fund management period and the monitoring period.

In Figure 3, IC ₀ is the original income before the start of the business, IC ₁ is the income after loan repayment during the fund management period after the start of the business, and IC ₂ is the actual income after the end of the fund management period. The investee's income increases significantly in a short period of time due to the start of the business, and then remains at a constant amount. During the fund management period, there is a loan repayment amount, so the income after loan repayment IC ₁ is lower than the actual income IC ₂ , but after the loan repayment period ends, the actual income will fluctuate at IC ₂ .

3, the planned impact calculation unit 13A calculates the difference between the post-loan repayment income _IC1 and the original income _IC0 as the planned amount of quantitative impact during the fund management period, and calculates the difference between the actual income _IC2 and the original income _IC0 as the planned amount of quantitative impact during the period after the end of the fund management period. The original income _IC0 , the post-loan repayment income _IC1 (or the loan repayment amount), and the actual income _IC2 are included in the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11.

Here, the planned impact calculation unit 13A calculates the planned amount of quantitative impact during the reporting period (during the fund's management period and the period after the end of the management period) based on the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11 at a timing of a predetermined period from the start of the fund management period. The timing of the predetermined period is a timing at which the amount of income is expected to stabilize at a nearly constant level. For example, it can be the timing of four months (the first quarter) after the start of the fund's management. It is also possible to acquire impact-related information several times to determine whether the amount of income has stabilized. In this case, the planned impact calculation unit 13A makes a statistical judgment by looking at the rate of fluctuation in the amount of income. Since the regular amount of income differs depending on each investment target, a more accurate planned amount can be obtained by acquiring the information multiple times.

The planned impact calculation unit 13A may recalculate the planned amount of quantitative impact for the period after the end of the fund management period based on the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11 at the end of the fund management period or at a timing thereafter. This is because there may be a difference between the actual income IC2 at that time acquired as impact-related information _four months after the start of fund management and the most recent income IC2 acquired as impact-related information after the end of the ₃₆ -month management period. By recalculating the planned amount of quantitative impact after the end of the fund management period based on the most recent income _IC2 , a more accurate planned amount can be obtained.

The planned impact calculation unit 13A may calculate the total amount of planned quantitative impact during the reporting period. Similarly, the actual impact calculation unit 13B may calculate the total amount of actual quantitative impact from the start of fund management to the current timing. In the example of Figure 3, the total amount of planned quantitative impact during the reporting period corresponds to the sum of the shaded area, and can be roughly calculated by the following formula.
_IC1 x 36 months + IC2 _x (reporting period - 36 months) - IC0 _x reporting period

When the investment targets who raise funds from the fund to carry out a business are one or more individuals (e.g., multiple individuals belonging to a business partnership), the impact-related information acquisition unit 11 acquires impact-related information for each of the one or more individuals. The quantitative impact calculation unit 13 may then calculate the planned amount and actual amount of quantitative impact per person for each individual based on the impact-related information for the one or more individuals acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11. The planned amount of quantitative impact per person is as shown in FIG. 3.

In addition, the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 may calculate the planned amount and actual amount of the quantitative impact of the entire fund. The quantitative impact of the entire fund can be obtained by adding up the quantitative impact per person calculated for each individual. Furthermore, when calculating the planned amount of the quantitative impact of the entire fund, the planned amount of the quantitative impact of the entire fund may be calculated according to a function including a loss rate determined taking into consideration the possibility that some investment targets may withdraw from the business during the reporting period. In this case, the planned amount of the quantitative impact of the entire fund can be calculated by the following formula.
Σ (total planned amount of quantitative impact per person) for number of people x (1 - loss rate)

The qualitative impact assessment unit 14 assesses whether the lives of the investment targets have improved qualitatively compared to before the investment targets started their business, based on the impact-related information (particularly information that contributes to the qualification of social impact) acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11. The qualitative impact assessment unit 14 stores and saves the quantitative impact assessment results in a storage medium so that they can be used for creating reports this time and in future reports.

Information that contributes to the qualification of social impacts is, for example, images, videos, interview articles, questionnaire response information, etc. that show the living conditions of the investment target. The qualitative impact evaluation unit 14 evaluates whether or not the life has improved based on, for example, the questionnaire response information. Alternatively, the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14 may evaluate whether or not the life has improved by performing natural language analysis on the sentences of the interview article to extract words, and analyzing whether or not the extracted words match keywords registered in advance as words indicating that the life has improved. In addition, the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14 may perform speech recognition on the speech included in the video to convert it into text, and analyze the natural language analysis from there to analyze whether or not the extracted words match keywords, thereby evaluating whether or not the life has improved.

The qualitative impact may be classified into multiple categories, and for each category, whether the investment target's life has improved qualitatively compared to before the investment target started the business may be evaluated. For example, there may be three categories: food, clothing, and shelter. In addition, categories such as savings and education may be added.

The report creation unit 15 creates a report including the quantitative impact calculated by the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 and the qualitative impact evaluated by the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14. In addition to the evaluation results by the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14, a report may be created that includes information that contributes to the qualification of the social impact acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11 (images, videos, interview articles, questionnaire response information, etc. that show the living conditions of the investment targets). Furthermore, in addition to the quantitative impact and qualitative impact, a report may be created that includes the economic return on the investment acquired by the investment-related information acquisition unit 12. Note that if the funding provided by the funder is a donation or the like that is not intended to obtain profits, information on the economic return does not need to be included in the report.

Regarding quantitative impact, a report will be created that visualizes the planned and actual quantitative impact. Regarding qualitative impact, a report will be created that visualizes the qualitative improvements in the lives of the investment targets compared to before they started their business. For individual investors, especially those with a strong social contribution mindset, qualitative effects tend to be more noticeable than quantitative effects. Therefore, by creating a report that shows the changes in the investment targets' living conditions before and after investment, it is expected that an even greater social impact will be created by attracting investors who place an emphasis on social impact even if the economic return is weak.

Here, the report creation unit 15 may create a report that visualizes the change in the actual amount of quantitative impact calculated by the actual impact calculation unit 13B for each of multiple timings. For example, it is possible to create a report that includes the actual amount of quantitative impact from the previous time and the actual amount of quantitative impact from the current time, or a report that includes the difference between the previous and current quantitative impacts. Alternatively, the actual impact calculation unit 13B may accumulate the actual amount of quantitative impact calculated for each of multiple timings for each of multiple timings, and the report creation unit 15 may create a report that visualizes the accumulated value of the actual amount of quantitative impact for each of multiple timings.

A report may be created in which the cumulative value of the planned amount of quantitative impact is visualized in addition to the actual amount of quantitative impact. In this case, the planned impact calculation unit 12A accumulates the planned amount of quantitative impact at multiple points in time during the reporting period. The report creation unit 15 creates a report in which the cumulative value of the actual amount of quantitative impact is visualized for multiple timings, and the cumulative value of the planned amount of quantitative impact is visualized for multiple points in time.

Figure 4 shows an example of information that visualizes the planned and actual quantitative impacts as cumulative values. Figure 4 shows a line graph based on the example shown in Figure 3, with the horizontal axis representing time and the vertical axis representing the cumulative value of the increase in revenue. Figure 4(a) shows a line graph included in a report created at the third timing during the fund management period. Figure 4(b) shows a line graph included in a report created at the end of the fund management period.

In FIG. 4(a), the line graph AP _C of the actual amount shows the actual amount of the quantitative impact for three times as a cumulative value. The line graphs EX ₁ and EX ₂ of the planned amount show the planned amount during the operation period and the planned amount after the operation period as a cumulative value. As explained in FIG. 3, the planned amount of the quantitative impact is calculated on the premise that the income IC ₂ of the investee after starting the business will remain constant, but when expressed as a cumulative value, it becomes a straight line that rises to the right. The slope of the line EX ₁ during the fund operation period is due to the income IC ₁ after loan repayment, and the slope of the line EX ₂ after the fund operation period is due to the actual income IC _2. As the loan repayment ends as the fund operation period passes, the slope of the line EX ₂ becomes larger than the slope of the line EX ₁ thereafter.

In FIG. 4(b), the line graph AP _C ' of the actual amount shows the actual amount of the quantitative impact calculated at each of a plurality of timings during the fund management period as a cumulative value. The line graphs EX ₁ and EX ₂ of the planned amount are the same as those in FIG. 4(a). In FIG. 4(b), a straight line EX ₂ ' after the fund management period has elapsed is added. This straight line EX ₂ ' shows the cumulative value of the planned amount of the quantitative impact recalculated based on the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11 at the end of the fund management period. In the example of FIG. 4(b), the slope of the straight line EX ₂ ' is larger than the slope of the straight line EX _2. This makes it possible to see at a glance that the actual performance is better than the initial plan.

In addition, when there are multiple individuals who are investment targets in a business, the investor may select any of them to invest in, and a report may be created that visualizes the social impact of the selected investment target and the social impact of the entire fund. For example, a web page for selecting an investment target may be displayed on the investor terminal 10, and when the investor selects a business he or she wishes to invest in, a list of multiple investment candidates belonging to the association related to that business may be displayed. The investor selects the desired investment target from this list of candidates. The report creation unit 15 creates a report that visualizes the social impact of the investment target selected in this way and the social impact of the entire fund. By allowing the investor to select the investment target himself or herself, it is possible to improve the investor's motivation to invest. Since it is important for the investor to be able to see the face of the investment target in which he or she has invested, the selection itself may be made by the system, not by the investor.

Figure 5 is a diagram showing an example of a report created by the report creation unit 15. This report visualizes the social impact of three investment targets selected by an investor and the social impact of the entire fund.

This report includes the cumulative quantitative impact 51 for the entire fund. The example in Figure 5 shows the cumulative planned quantitative impact at the end of the fund management period and the cumulative actual quantitative impact to date. This allows investors to get an overall picture of the planned and actual quantitative impact, and recognize that they are participating in a fund with great social significance (large scale).

The report also includes the change from the previous time 52 in the actual amount of quantitative impact for each of the three investment targets, and a line graph 53 that visualizes the planned and actual amounts of quantitative impact during the reporting period as cumulative values. This allows investors to easily recognize at a glance the changes in the social impact occurring for each investment target, and to get a real feel for how they are contributing to the social impact of the investment targets.

The report also includes a total of 54, the planned quantitative impact for the three people over the fund's management period. In the example of Figure 5, the investor's investment amount and the total planned increase in income for the investment targets are shown. This allows the investor to recognize that the total planned quantitative impact will be greater than the investment amount.

The report also includes the qualitative impact evaluation result 55 and an interview article or questionnaire response information 56 showing the living conditions of the investment target. In the example of FIG. 5, the qualitative impact evaluation result 55 shows categories in which the investment target's life has qualitatively improved compared to before the investment target started the business. Specifically, icons showing multiple categories are shown, and the icons of improved categories are grayed out to indicate "done". This allows the investor to get a feel for the qualitative changes in the investment target's living conditions. By receiving multiple reports, the investor can remember the items previously reported, and the gamification element of filling in the category boxes can also maintain motivation for continued investment.

The report also includes a photo 57 of the investee and a message 58 sent by the investee, so that the investor can feel closer to the investee. The report also includes information 59 regarding the economic return on the investment. In the example of Figure 5, the investment start date, end date, planned month and planned amount of payment of the economic return, and total amount paid to date are shown.

The background color or design of the report may be changed depending on the size of the social impact achieved. For example, the background color or design may be gray or cloudy when the achieved social impact is small, and blue or blue sky when the achieved social impact is large, allowing the user to intuitively grasp the size of the achieved social impact.

The report presentation unit 16 presents the report created by the report creation unit 15 to the investor. For example, the report presentation unit 16 presents the report to the investor terminal 10 in the form of a web page. Specifically, the report presentation unit 16 generates data for the web page of the report and saves the data in a storage location that the investor terminal 10 can access by specifying a specific URL (Uniform Resource Locator). This allows the investor to view the web page of the report at any time by specifying the URL from the web browser of the investor terminal 10.

The report presentation unit 16 may generate the report as a document file in a specified format, attach this to an e-mail, and send it to the investor terminal 10. Alternatively, instead of attaching a document file, an e-mail with the above-mentioned URL written in the body of the e-mail may be sent to the investor terminal 10. As another example, the report presentation unit 16 may print out the report. In this case, the printed report is sent to the investor's address or a specified location.

Figure 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the impact management server 100 according to the first embodiment configured as described above. First, the impact-related information acquisition unit 11 judges whether or not one month has passed since the previous information collection (initially the start of investment management) (step S1). If one month has not yet passed, the judgment of step S1 is repeated. If one month has passed, the impact-related information acquisition unit 11 acquires information that contributes to the quantification and qualification of social impact from the information collection server 30 (step S2). In addition, the investment-related information acquisition unit 12 acquires investment-related information from the investment management server 40 (step S3).

Next, the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 determines whether the present is a predetermined period after the start of the investment management (e.g., the first quarter) (step S4). If it is a predetermined period after the start of the investment management, the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 calculates the planned amount of quantitative impact for the reporting period by the planned impact calculation unit 13A, and calculates the actual amount of current quantitative impact by the actual impact calculation unit 13B. In addition, the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14 evaluates the improvement status of the current investment target's life (step S5).

If it is determined in step S4 above that the present time does not correspond to the timing after the specified period, the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 determines whether the present time is the end of the fund management period (step S6). If the present time corresponds to the end of the management period, the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 recalculates the planned amount of quantitative impact for the period after the end of the management period using the planned impact calculation unit 13A, and calculates the current actual amount of quantitative impact using the actual impact calculation unit 13B. In addition, the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14 evaluates the improvement in the lives of the current investment targets (step S7).

If it is determined in step S6 above that the present does not correspond to the end of the fund management period, the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 determines whether the present is the time after the end of the monitoring period (step S8). If the present is not the time after the end of the monitoring period, the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 calculates the actual amount of the current quantitative impact using the actual impact calculation unit 13B, and evaluates the improvement in the lives of the current investment targets using the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14 (step S9).

After the quantitative impact is calculated and the qualitative impact is evaluated in step S5, step S7, or step S9, the report creation unit 15 creates a report including the quantitative impact calculated by the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 and the qualitative impact evaluated by the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14 (step S10). Then, the report presentation unit 16 presents the report created by the report creation unit 15 to investors (step S11). Note that if the report is presented via a web page, in step S11, a process is performed to save the report data in a storage location indicated by the URL of the web page. Then, the process returns to step S1.

If it is determined in step S8 above that the current timing corresponds to the timing after the end of the monitoring period, the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 ends. Note that even after the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 ends, the investor can access the web page and view the report at any time.

As described above in detail, in the first embodiment, impact-related information that contributes to quantifying and qualifying the social impact generated by the business conducted by the investment target that has received investment from the investor is acquired at multiple timings, either regularly or irregularly, from the start of the investment management, and the quantitative impact and qualitative impact are calculated and evaluated at multiple timings based on the acquired impact-related information. According to the first embodiment configured in this way, the social impact generated by the business conducted by the investment target that has received investment from the investor can be calculated and evaluated in a manner that monitors it at multiple timings, either regularly or irregularly, so that the social impact can be calculated and evaluated appropriately. In addition, as in Patent Document 1, there is no need to ensure the appropriateness of the social impact evaluation by having two or more users with different user attributes make an evaluation, and even a single investment manager can ensure the appropriateness by monitoring it at multiple timings.

In the above embodiment, the impact management server 100 is described as having an impact-related information acquisition unit 11, an investment-related information acquisition unit 12, a quantitative impact calculation unit 13, and a qualitative impact evaluation unit 14, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a dedicated application program may be installed in the business associate terminal 20, and this application program may have the above-mentioned functional configurations 11 to 14. In this case, the business associate terminal 20 corresponds to the information processing device within the scope of the claims. The impact management server 100 acquires quantitative impact and qualitative impact information from the business associate terminal 20, and creates a report that visualizes the social impact.

In the above embodiment, an example of creating a report that includes both quantitative and qualitative impacts has been described, but a report that includes only quantitative impacts may also be created. In the above embodiment, an example of creating a report that includes both planned and actual amounts of quantitative impacts has been described, but a report that includes only actual amounts may also be created. However, creating a report that includes both planned and actual amounts is preferable in that it allows the difference between planned and actual to be recognized.

In the above embodiment, an example of calculating the amount of increase in income as the quantitative impact has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. The amount of increase in income can be said to be a quantitative impact that is directly attributable to the amount of investment, but in addition to this, a secondary impact derived from the directly attributable quantitative impact may be calculated. For example, the number of children who are able to receive education as a result of an increase in income may be calculated as a secondary quantitative impact. In addition, the number of people who escape from poverty when compared with the amount of income in relative poverty or absolute poverty may be calculated as a secondary quantitative impact.

Secondary social impact is a fundamental element in correcting the gap between rich and poor in the medium to long term, and by quantitatively visualizing this, it becomes possible to evaluate social impact in the true sense of the word. This also helps to prevent doubts about impact washing and SDG washing, making it possible to attract investments from investors with a strong social contribution mindset.

The actual impact calculation unit 13B may also calculate the impact amount based on the investment amount of the individual investor as the actual amount of quantitative impact. For example, the actual impact calculation unit 13B calculates the impact amount per investment unit by dividing the total amount of the actual amount of quantitative impact for the entire fund by the total investment amount of the investment fund. Furthermore, the actual impact calculation unit 13B calculates the impact amount of an individual investor by multiplying the investment amount of the individual investor by the impact amount per investment unit. In this way, the investor can clearly see the degree of his or her contribution, and can get the feeling that he or she is making an individual loan, even though it is a fund. This can increase investor satisfaction, which is expected to lead to continued investment behavior.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the loan repayment period is the same as the fund management period, but in cases where the investment targets who will participate in the business are recruited or replaced as needed after the fund is established and management begins, the fund management period and the loan repayment period do not have to match. In this case, the same effect can be created by interpreting the start timing of fund management in the above embodiment as the start timing of the loan execution.

In the above embodiment, an example was described in which a list of investment candidates is presented to the investor and the investor can select an investment target from the list. However, after the investment target is selected, a means may be provided for allowing the investor and the investment target to directly transact financially, for example, using blockchain technology. In addition, a management system for default avoidance may be further provided. For example, human capital may be concentrated and invested in default avoidance.

Second Embodiment
A second embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a social impact presentation system according to the second embodiment. In Fig. 7, components having the same functions as those shown in Fig. 1 are given the same reference numerals. As shown in Fig. 7, the second embodiment includes an investor terminal 10' and an investment target terminal 20A' instead of the investor terminal 10 and the investment target terminal 20A shown in Fig. 1. Also, an impact management server 200 is provided instead of the impact management server 100 shown in Fig. 1.

In the second embodiment, the investor terminal 10' has a function of an investor attribute providing unit that provides and registers investor attribute information (hereinafter referred to as investor attributes) to the impact management server 200, and a function of a report display unit that obtains and displays a report from the impact management server 200 that visualizes the social impact created by the business conducted by the investment target that has received investment from the investor, the report including content specified according to the investor attributes. The investment target terminal 20A' has a function of providing and registering attribute information of the investment target (hereinafter referred to as investment target attributes) to the impact management server 200. Note that this attribute information may be temporarily registered in the information collecting server 30, and then provided from the information collecting server 30 to the impact management server 200 for registration.

In the second embodiment, the impact management server 200 executes a process of matching investors with investment targets based on investor attributes acquired from the investor terminal 10' and investment target attributes acquired from the investment target terminal 20A'. The investor can select a desired investment target from among the matched investment candidates and invest in it. The impact management server 200 creates a report including details of the social impact generated by the business conducted by the investment target selected by the investor.

Figure 8 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the impact management server 200 according to the second embodiment. In this Figure 8, the components with the same reference numerals as those shown in Figure 2 have the same functions, so duplicated explanations will be omitted here. As shown in Figure 8, the impact management server 200 according to the second embodiment includes a report creation unit 15' instead of the report creation unit 15 shown in Figure 1. The impact management server 200 according to the second embodiment further includes an investor attribute acquisition unit 21, an investment target attribute acquisition unit 22, a matching unit 24, an information management unit 23, and an investment execution probability acquisition unit 25 as functional configurations. The impact management server 200 according to the second embodiment further includes an attribute information storage unit 26 as a storage medium.

The above-mentioned functional blocks 21 to 25 can be configured using any of hardware, DSP, and software. For example, when configured using software, the above-mentioned functional blocks 21 to 25 are actually configured with a computer's CPU, RAM, ROM, etc., and are realized by the operation of a program stored in a storage medium such as the RAM, ROM, hard disk, or semiconductor memory.

In the second embodiment, the same impact management server 100 as in the first embodiment may be used, and the configuration of functional blocks 21 to 25 may be provided in the investment management server 40. Alternatively, a matching server may be provided separately from the investment management server 40 and the impact management server 100, and the configuration of functional blocks 21 to 25 may be provided in the matching server.

The investor attribute acquisition unit 21 acquires investor attributes, which are attribute information of investors, from the investor terminal 10'. For example, the investor attribute acquisition unit 21 displays a webpage for inputting investor attributes on the investor terminal 10', and acquires the investor attributes input by the investor through the webpage from the investor terminal 10'. The investor attributes acquired by the investor attribute acquisition unit 21 are, for example, demographic attributes of the investor (age, gender, occupation, family structure, etc.). The investor attributes may also include information indicating the investor's interests and concerns. Specifically, the investor's preferences (whether or not they have a family, areas of interest, industries of interest, etc.) and impact themes of interest (poverty, environment, healthcare, gender, employment, etc.) may be acquired.

The investment target attribute acquisition unit 22 acquires investment target attributes, which are attribute information of the investment target, from the investment target terminal 20A'. For example, the investment target attribute acquisition unit 22 displays a webpage for inputting investment target attributes on the investment target terminal 20A', and acquires the investment target attributes input by the investment target through the webpage from the investment target terminal 20A'. The investment target attributes acquired by the investment target attribute acquisition unit 22 are, for example, demographic attributes of the investment target. In addition, the investment target attributes may include business attribute information related to the business conducted by the investment target. The business attribute information includes, for example, the region in which the investment target conducts its business, the industry to which the business belongs, and the impact theme related to the business.

The information management unit 23 records and manages investor attributes for each investor in the database of the attribute information storage unit 26, and also records and manages investment target attributes for each investment target in the database of the attribute information storage unit 26.

The matching unit 24 extracts investment targets whose investment target attributes match predetermined matching conditions with respect to the investor attributes based on the investor attributes and investment target attributes stored in the database of the attribute information storage unit 26, and presents the extracted investment targets to the investor terminal 10' as investment candidates. Investors can select the desired investment target from the investment candidates presented by the matching unit 24 and invest in it.

For example, the matching unit 24 extracts as investment candidates investment targets who meet the matching condition that the demographic attributes of the investment target are identical or similar to the demographic attributes of the investor. By extracting investment candidates using such matching conditions, the investor can feel a sense of affinity to the investment target selected from among the investment candidates, and can feel a sense of satisfaction and contribution from the investment activity.

The matching unit 24 also extracts as investment candidates investment targets who meet the matching condition that the matters or demographic attributes included in the investment target's business attribute information are identical or similar to the investor's matters of interest and concern. By extracting investment candidates using such matching conditions, appropriate matching can be performed for investors who already have a specific goal, and the investor's motivation for investing can be improved. Furthermore, by selecting an investment target who is engaged in a business related to the impact theme desired by the investor, it becomes possible to experience a contribution to the social issue in which the investor is most interested.

When an investor selects an investment target, the selected investment target is notified to the information management unit 23 via the matching unit 24. The information management unit 23 assigns an investment execution flag to the investment target selected by the investor in the database stored in the attribute information storage unit 26.

The report creation unit 15' creates a report including the details of the social impact generated by the business carried out by the investment target selected by the investor from among the investment candidates, from the quantitative impact calculated by the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 and the qualitative impact evaluated by the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14, using the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11 and the investment-related information acquired by the investment-related information acquisition unit 12. For example, when the investor selects three investment targets, the report created will be similar to that shown in FIG. 5. The investment target selected by the investor can be recognized by referring to the investment execution flag stored in the attribute information storage unit 26.

The investment execution probability acquisition unit 25 inputs each combination of investor attributes and multiple investment target attributes stored in the attribute information storage unit 26 into a machine-learned model, and acquires the investment execution probability corresponding to the multiple investment target attributes from the model. Here, the model of the investment execution probability acquisition unit 25 is generated by a machine learning process using the investor attributes, investment target attributes, and investment execution flags as learning data. The investment execution probability is a value indicating which combination of investment target attributes is more likely to result in an investment being executed (the more likely the investment target is to be selected from among investment candidates) for a certain investor attribute.

After a large number of investment execution flags are recorded in the database of the attribute information storage unit 26, it is possible to perform machine learning processing using the investor attributes, investment target attributes, and investment execution flags as learning data to generate a model configured to output an investment execution probability when a combination of investor attributes and investment target attributes is input.

The matching unit 24 may extract, as investment candidates, investment targets having investment target attributes corresponding to investment execution probabilities that meet a predetermined matching condition from among the multiple investment execution probabilities acquired by the investment execution probability acquisition unit 25 for multiple combinations of investor attributes and investment target attributes. For example, it is possible to extract a predetermined number of investment targets as investment candidates from those with the highest investment execution probabilities. By performing such matching, it is possible to present to the investor investment candidates who are likely to be the targets of investment.

For example, a predetermined number of investment candidates may be extracted from those with the highest and lowest investment execution probabilities. Alternatively, a predetermined number may be extracted from those with the highest investment execution probabilities, and the remaining number may be extracted randomly. In this way, it is possible to prevent the problem of investors becoming bored by only listing investment candidates with the same tendencies.

The matching unit 24 may perform matching based only on the investment execution probability, without performing matching based on demographic attributes and interests and concerns. The matching unit 24 may also perform both matching based on demographic attributes and interests and concerns, and matching based on the investment execution probability. When performing both types of matching, investment candidates extracted using the OR condition of both types of matching may be presented to the investor, or investment candidates extracted using the AND condition of both types of matching may be presented to the investor.

Figure 9 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the matching unit 24 provided in the impact management server 200 according to the second embodiment configured as described above. The processing of the flowchart shown in Figure 9 starts, for example, when an investor instructs the impact management server 200 to execute matching from the investor terminal 10'. At this time, the investor attributes of the investor are already stored in the attribute information storage unit 26, and the investment target attributes of multiple investment targets are also already stored in the attribute information storage unit 26.

First, the matching unit 24 acquires the investor attributes of the investor who has instructed the execution of matching from the attribute information storage unit 26 (step S21). Then, the matching unit 24 performs matching based on the acquired investor attributes and the investment target attributes of multiple investment targets stored in the attribute information storage unit 26, thereby extracting one or more investment targets whose investment target attributes match predetermined matching conditions against the investor attributes (step S22), and presents the extracted investment targets to the investor terminal 10' as investment candidates (step S23).

Then, the matching unit 24 judges whether or not any of the investment candidates has been selected by the investor (step S24). If no selection has been made, the matching unit 24 judges whether or not an instruction to end processing has been received from the investor (step S25). If an instruction to end processing has not been received, the process returns to step S24 and waits for a selection to be made by the investor. If an instruction to end processing has been received from the investor, the process of the flowchart shown in FIG. 9 is terminated.

When the investor selects one of the investment candidates in step S24, the matching unit 24 notifies the information management unit 23 of the selected investment target. In response, the information management unit 23 assigns an investment execution flag to the investment target selected by the investor in the database stored in the attribute information storage unit 26 (step S26). This ends the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. 9.

Note that, although it has been explained here that the process in FIG. 9 starts when an investor instructs execution of matching, the process in FIG. 9 may be executed following the process in which the investor registers investor attributes in the impact management server 200.

In the second embodiment, the operation of the report creation unit 15' when creating a report is the same as the example of operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6. When creating a report in step S10, the report creation unit 15' checks the investment target selected by the investor who is the subject of the report by referring to the investment execution flag stored in the attribute information storage unit 26, and creates a report including details of the social impact generated by the business carried out by the selected investment target.

As explained in detail above, in the second embodiment, a report including content specified according to investor attributes is created, and the created report is presented to the investor. Specifically, investment targets whose investment target attributes meet predetermined matching conditions for the investor attributes are extracted, the extracted investment targets are presented to the investor as investment candidates, and a report is created including details of the social impact created by the business carried out by the investment target selected by the investor from the investment candidates.

According to the second embodiment configured in this way, a report with content according to investor attributes is created, so that a report with appropriate content that visualizes the social impact can be created for investors. In addition, because the most suitable investment target is selected according to investor attributes, it is possible to increase the probability of investment, and as a result, it is possible to maximize the impact on society.

Third Embodiment
A third embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a social impact presentation system according to the third embodiment. In FIG. 10, components having the same functions as those shown in FIG. 1 are given the same reference numerals. As shown in FIG. 10, the third embodiment includes an investor terminal 10" instead of the investor terminal 10 shown in FIG. 1. Also, an impact management server 300 is provided instead of the impact management server 100 shown in FIG. 1.

In the third embodiment, the investor terminal 10" has the function of an investor attribute providing unit that provides and registers investor attributes to the impact management server 300, and the function of a report display unit that obtains and displays from the impact management server 300 a report that visualizes the social impact created by the business conducted by the investment target that has received investment from the investor, the report including content specified according to the investor attributes. In the third embodiment, the impact management server 300 uses a report format specified according to the investor attributes obtained from the investor terminal 10 to create a report including content specified in the report format.

Figure 11 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the impact management server 300 according to the third embodiment. In this Figure 11, the components with the same reference numerals as those shown in Figure 2 have the same functions, so duplicated explanations will be omitted here. As shown in Figure 11, the impact management server 300 according to the third embodiment has a report creation unit 15" instead of the report creation unit 15 shown in Figure 1. The impact management server 300 according to the third embodiment further has an investor attribute acquisition unit 31, an information management unit 32, and a format acquisition unit 33 as functional configurations. The impact management server 300 according to the third embodiment further has a format storage unit 34 and an attribute information storage unit 35 as storage media.

The above-mentioned functional blocks 31 to 33 can be configured using any of hardware, DSP, and software. For example, when configured using software, the above-mentioned functional blocks 31 to 33 are actually configured with a computer's CPU, RAM, ROM, etc., and are realized by the operation of a program stored in a storage medium such as the RAM, ROM, hard disk, or semiconductor memory.

The format storage unit 34 stores a plurality of report formats, each having predefined input information items and/or layout, together with their respective identification information (hereinafter referred to as format IDs). For example, the format storage unit 34 stores an objective pattern report format including many input information items related to quantitative impact as shown in FIG. 12(a), and an emotional pattern report format including many input information items related to qualitative impact as shown in FIG. 12(b). The objective pattern report format is a report format including input information items or layouts that are expected to be important to institutional investors. The emotional pattern report format is a report format including input information items or layouts that are expected to be important to individual investors.

The investor attribute acquisition unit 31 acquires investor attributes, which are attribute information of investors, from the investor terminal 10". For example, the investor attribute acquisition unit 31 displays a webpage for inputting investor attributes on the investor terminal 10", and acquires the investor attributes input by the investor through the webpage from the investor terminal 10". The investor attributes acquired by the investor attribute acquisition unit 31 include, for example, information identifying whether the investor is an individual investor or an institutional investor.

The information management unit 32 records and manages investor attributes for each investor in the database of the attribute information storage unit 35. In addition, when an investor makes an additional investment action, the information management unit 32 assigns an additional investment execution flag to the investor who made the additional investment in the database of the attribute information storage unit 35.

The format acquisition unit 33 acquires from the format storage unit 34 a report format specified based on the investor attributes acquired by the investor attribute acquisition unit 31 (the investor attributes stored in the database of the attribute information storage unit 35). For example, when creating a report for a certain investor, the format acquisition unit 33 extracts the investor attributes of that investor from the attribute information storage unit 35, and acquires from the format storage unit 34 a report format specified based on the extracted investor attributes.

For example, when the investor attributes extracted from the attribute information storage unit 35 indicate that the investor is an institutional investor, the format acquisition unit 33 acquires a report format of an objective pattern from the format storage unit 34. On the other hand, when the investor attributes extracted from the attribute information storage unit 35 indicate that the investor is an individual investor, the format acquisition unit 33 acquires a report format of an emotional pattern from the format storage unit 34.

The report creation unit 15" creates a report including contents defined in the report format acquired by the format acquisition unit 33 using the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11, the investment-related information acquired by the investment-related information acquisition unit 12, and further the quantitative impact calculated by the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 using this information, and the qualitative impact evaluated by the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14.

While individual investors may place importance on the degree of contribution to social issues, institutional investors may place importance on more quantitative information and economic returns. By switching the report format according to investor attributes as described above, it is possible to create and provide reports containing information that is optimal for investors. This can help improve the motivation of individual investors and improve the operational efficiency of institutional investors (such as the efficiency of reporting to institutional investors).

The investor attributes and report formats according to the investor attributes described above are merely examples and are not limited thereto. For example, when the investor attributes are information indicating that the investor is an individual investor, they may further include information indicating the interests and concerns of the individual investor. Specifically, they may include information indicating the investor's preferences (whether or not he/she has a family, areas of interest, industries of interest, etc.) and impact themes of interest (poverty, environment, healthcare, gender, employment, etc.).

The format acquisition unit 33 acquires from the format storage unit 34 a report format including input information items or layouts related to the interests and concerns of individual investors based on the investor attributes. For example, if the investor attributes indicate that the investor is an individual investor and the investor's preferences indicate that he or she has a family, a report format including a large number of photos of the family looking happy or working hard is acquired. Alternatively, if the investor attributes indicate that the investor is an individual investor and indicates that the investor has an interest in environmental themes, a report format including input information items in line with the impact theme, such as whether the equipment used by the investment target contributes to reducing environmental impact, is acquired.

Furthermore, when the investor attributes are information indicating that the investor is an individual investor, they may further include information indicating the personality of the individual investor. The information indicating the personality may be obtained by common means such as a questionnaire survey or a personality trait diagnosis such as the well-known Big Five. The information indicating the personality may also include information indicating whether the individual investor is wealthy or not. In this case, the format acquisition unit 33 acquires a report format including input information items or a layout predefined according to the personality from the format storage unit 34 based on the investor attributes.

As described above, by segmenting the investor attributes of individual investors and switching report formats according to the segmented investor attributes, it is possible to create and provide reports to individual investors that are tailored to their interests and personalities. This makes it possible to increase investor satisfaction and increase the incentive for individual investors to invest.

In addition, when the investor attributes are information indicating that the investor is an institutional investor, they may further include information identifying whether the institutional investor is a financial institution, an investment specialist, or a business company. In this case, the format acquisition unit 33 acquires a report format that is pre-associated with either a financial institution, an investment specialist, or a business company from the format storage unit 34 based on the investor attributes.

Furthermore, when the investor attributes are information indicating that the investor is a financial institution, they may further include information identifying whether the financial institution's customer base is impact investors or not. In this case, when acquiring a report format related to a financial institution, the format acquisition unit 33 acquires from the format storage unit 34 a report format that is pre-associated depending on whether the financial institution's customer base is impact investors or not.

As described above, by segmenting the investor attributes of institutional investors and switching report formats according to the segmented investor attributes, institutional investors can efficiently provide reports to their subsequent customer base (investors), thereby increasing the satisfaction of that customer base.

The format acquisition unit 33 may acquire a report format corresponding to investor attributes from the format storage unit 34 using a model generated by machine learning processing using the additional investment execution flag. In other words, the format acquisition unit 33 may be configured to input investor attributes into a machine-learned model and acquire a format ID from the model.

The model of the format acquisition unit 33 is generated by a machine learning process that uses the format ID of the report format used to create the report by the report creation unit 15'', investor attributes, and an additional investment execution flag as learning data. In this case, the model has learned which report format is more likely to result in additional investment when used for a certain investor attribute.

After a large number of additional investment execution flags are recorded in the database of the attribute information storage unit 35, machine learning processing can be performed using the format ID, investor attributes, and additional investment execution flags as learning data to generate a model configured to output the format ID of a report format that is likely to result in additional investment when investor attributes are input.

Figure 13 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the impact management server 300 according to the third embodiment configured as described above. In this Figure 13, the steps with the same step numbers as those shown in Figure 6 are assigned with the same processes, so duplicated explanations will be omitted here. Note that when the process of Figure 13 is disclosed, the investor attributes of the investor are already stored in the attribute information storage unit 35.

In FIG. 13, after the quantitative impact is calculated and the qualitative impact is evaluated in step S5, step S7, or step S9, the format acquisition unit 33 acquires the investor attributes of the investors to be reported from the attribute information storage unit 35 (step S31), and acquires a report format specified based on the acquired investor attributes from the format storage unit 34 (step S32).

Next, the report creation unit 15" creates a report including contents defined in the report format acquired by the format acquisition unit 33 using the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit 11, the investment-related information acquired by the investment-related information acquisition unit 12, and further the quantitative impact calculated by the quantitative impact calculation unit 13 using these pieces of information, and the qualitative impact evaluated by the qualitative impact evaluation unit 14 (step S10).

As explained in detail above, in the third embodiment as well, a report including content specified according to investor attributes is created, and the created report is presented to the investor. Specifically, in the third embodiment, the report is created using a report format specified according to investor attributes.

According to the third embodiment configured in this way, a report is created according to a report format having input information items and layouts according to investor attributes, so that a report with appropriate content that visualizes the social impact can be created for investors. This can increase investor satisfaction and the probability of leading to additional investment, thereby maximizing the impact on society.

The first, second and third embodiments have been described above, but any two or three of these embodiments may be combined and applied.

In addition, the first to third embodiments described above are merely examples of how the present invention can be implemented, and the technical scope of the present invention should not be interpreted in a limiting manner based on these. In other words, the present invention can be implemented in various forms without departing from its gist or main features.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Impact-related information acquisition unit 12 Investment-related information acquisition unit 13 Quantitative impact calculation unit 13A Planned impact calculation unit 13B Actual impact calculation unit 14 Qualitative impact evaluation unit 15, 15', 15" Report creation unit 16 Report presentation unit 21 Investor attribute acquisition unit 22 Investment target attribute acquisition unit 23 Information management unit 24 Matching unit 25 Investment execution probability acquisition unit 26 Attribute information storage unit 31 Investor attribute acquisition unit 32 Information management unit 33 Format acquisition unit 34 Format storage unit 35 Attribute information storage unit 10, 10', 10" Investor terminal 20 Business related party terminal 20A, 20A' Investment target terminal 20B Operations manager terminal 20C Association manager terminal 30 Information collection server 40 Investment management server 100, 200, 300 Impact management server

Claims (18)

an impact-related information acquisition unit that acquires impact-related information that contributes to quantifying the social impact generated by a project conducted by a recipient of funding provided by a funder;
a quantitative impact calculation unit that calculates a quantitative impact, which is a quantitative social impact, based on the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit,
The impact-related information acquisition unit acquires the impact-related information at multiple timings, either regularly or irregularly, from the start of fund management,
The social impact presentation system is characterized in that the quantitative impact calculation unit calculates the quantitative impact for each of the multiple timings. a report creation unit that creates a report including the quantitative impact calculated by the quantitative impact calculation unit;
2. The social impact presentation system according to claim 1, further comprising a report presentation unit that presents the report created by the report creation unit to the funder. The quantitative impact calculation unit is
an expected impact calculation unit that calculates the expected amount of quantitative impact that may be generated by the implementation of the project during a predetermined reporting period from the start of the management of the fund;
and an actual impact calculation unit that calculates, for each of the multiple timings, the amount of quantitative impact that has actually been produced as a result of the funding recipient implementing the project after the start of the management of the funds;
3. The social impact presentation system according to claim 2, wherein the report creation unit creates a report in which the planned amount of the quantitative impact and the actual amount of the quantitative impact are visualized. The reporting period includes the investment period of the fund and the monitoring period after the investment period ends,
The social impact presentation system according to claim 3, characterized in that the multiple timings at which the actual impact calculation unit calculates the actual amount of the quantitative impact include timings during the operation period and timings during the monitoring period. The planned impact calculation unit is
Calculating a planned amount of the quantitative impact during the reporting period based on the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit at a timing a predetermined period after the start of the operation period, and
The social impact presentation system described in claim 4, characterized in that the planned amount of the quantitative impact for the period after the end of the operation period is recalculated based on the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit at the end of the operation period or thereafter. The recipient of the funding is an individual who conducts business using funding from the funder.
The quantitative impact includes the increase in actual income generated by the project conducted by the recipient of the funding using the equipment purchased with the loan, compared to the original income before the project started.
The social impact presentation system described in claim 4, characterized in that the quantitative impact calculation unit calculates the quantitative impact as the increase in income by subtracting the original income from the income after loan repayment during the operation period, and calculates the quantitative impact as the increase in income by subtracting the original income from the actual income during the period after the end of the operation period. The funding is a fund for the business, and the funding recipient is one or more individuals who raise funds from the fund to carry out the business;
The impact-related information acquisition unit acquires the impact-related information relating to each of the one or more individuals,
The social impact presentation system described in claim 3, characterized in that the quantitative impact calculation unit calculates the planned and actual amounts of quantitative impact per person based on the impact-related information regarding the one or more individuals acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit, calculates the planned and actual amounts of quantitative impact of the entire fund, and calculates the planned amount of quantitative impact of the entire fund according to a function including a loss rate determined taking into account the possibility that some funding recipients may leave the business during the reporting period. The funding is a fund for the business, and the funding recipient is one or more individuals who raise funds from the fund to carry out the business;
The impact-related information acquisition unit acquires the impact-related information relating to each of the one or more individuals,
The social impact presentation system described in claim 1, characterized in that the quantitative impact calculation unit calculates the quantitative impact per person and the quantitative impact of the entire fund based on the impact-related information regarding the one or more individuals acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit. The expected impact calculation unit calculates a total amount of the expected amount of the quantitative impact during the reporting period,
The social impact presentation system according to any one of claims 3 to 7, characterized in that the actual impact calculation unit calculates the total amount of actual results of the quantitative impact from the start of the operation to the present timing. The social impact presentation system according to any one of claims 2 to 7, characterized in that the report creation unit creates a report in which the change in the quantitative impact calculated for each of the multiple timings by the quantitative impact calculation unit is visualized. the actual impact calculation unit accumulates the actual amount of the quantitative impact calculated for each of the plurality of timings, for each of the plurality of timings;
The social impact presentation system according to any one of claims 3 to 7, characterized in that the report creation unit creates a report in which the cumulative value of the actual amount of the quantitative impact for each of the multiple timings is visualized. The planned impact calculation unit accumulates the planned amount of the quantitative impact at each of the multiple points in time during the reporting period,
The social impact presentation system described in claim 11, characterized in that the report creation unit creates a report in which the cumulative value of the actual amount of the quantitative impact for each of the multiple timings is visualized, and the cumulative value of the planned amount of the quantitative impact for each of the multiple points in time is visualized. The impact-related information acquisition unit further acquires information that contributes to visualization of qualitative impact, which is a qualitative social impact created by the business conducted by the funding recipient, at the multiple timings;
3. The social impact presentation system according to claim 2, wherein the report creation unit creates a report including the quantitative impact and the qualitative impact. The social impact presentation system according to claim 13, characterized in that the report creation unit creates a report that visualizes the qualitative improvement in the life of the funded person compared to before the funded person started the business. The above qualitative impacts are classified into several categories:
The social impact presentation system according to claim 14, characterized in that the report creation unit creates a report that visualizes categories in which the lives of the funded recipients have qualitatively improved compared to before the funded recipients started the business. The social impact presentation system according to claim 2, characterized in that the report creation unit creates a report that includes an economic return on investment in addition to the quantitative impact calculated by the quantitative impact calculation unit. an impact-related information acquisition unit that acquires impact-related information that contributes to quantifying the social impact generated by a project conducted by a recipient of funding provided by a funder;
a quantitative impact calculation unit that calculates a quantitative impact, which is a quantitative social impact, based on the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit,
The impact-related information acquisition unit acquires the impact-related information at multiple timings, either regularly or irregularly, from the start of fund management,
The information processing device, wherein the quantitative impact calculation section calculates the quantitative impact for each of the plurality of timings. An impact-related information acquisition unit of the computer acquires impact-related information that contributes to quantifying the social impact generated by a project conducted by a recipient of funding provided by a funder;
a step in which a quantitative impact calculation unit of the computer calculates a quantitative impact, which is a quantitative social impact, based on the impact-related information acquired by the impact-related information acquisition unit;
The impact-related information acquisition unit acquires the impact-related information at multiple timings, either regularly or irregularly, from the start of fund management,
The information processing method, wherein the quantitative impact calculation section calculates the quantitative impact for each of the plurality of timings.