Revealing Hidden Externalities for Collective Strategic Action

The socio-ecological transition requires not only technological innovation but also new ways of recognizing the social, environmental, and territorial value generated by collective action. Many of these positive externalities remain invisible in conventional assessment frameworks, limiting the legitimacy, financing, and scaling of local sustainability initiatives. This article presents a strategic framework designed to identify and structure positive externalities in collective self-consumption and other transformative projects. The method combines four components: (i) normative identification through the Sustainable Development Goals; (ii) balanced multi-stakeholder participation to surface diverse perspectives; (iii) perceptive mapping using an adapted Kano model; and (iv) strategic articulation. The framework was applied in two contrasting contexts: an energy community centered on shared renewable production, and a women’s empowerment program focused on capability-building and social innovation. These applications do not aim at empirical replication or the validation of results, but at examining how the framework supports collective recognition and strategic structuring in different organizational settings. Across these distinct settings, it led to the formulation of coherent and actionable strategic roadmaps, illustrating how positive externalities can inform governance choices, strengthen institutional legitimacy, and support long-term project consolidation. These results suggest that collective recognition enables externalities to structure strategic action beyond their original sector, demonstrating the potential transferability of the approach. Developed within a research program supported by the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) and the national urban-transition initiative (PUCA), the framework provides a practical decision architecture for structuring shared value within coordinated strategies.