  The concept of shared value was introduced by Porter and Kramer as a new
conception of capitalism. Shared value describes the strategy of organizations
that simultaneously enhance their competitiveness and the social conditions of
related stakeholders such as employees, suppliers and the natural environment.
The idea has generated strong interest, but also some controversy due to a lack
of a precise definition, measurement techniques and difficulties to connect
theory to practice. We overcome these drawbacks by proposing an economic
framework based on three key aspects: coalition formation, sustainability and
consistency, meaning that conclusions can be tested by means of logical
deductions and empirical applications. The presence of multiple agents to
create shared value and the optimization of both social and economic criteria
in decision making represent the core of our quantitative definition of shared
value. We also show how economic models can be characterized as shared value
models by means of logical deductions. Summarizing, our proposal builds on the
foundations of shared value to improve its understanding and to facilitate the
suggestion of economic hypotheses, hence accommodating the concept of shared
value within modern economic theory.
