New Structuralism and Field Emergence: The Co-constitution of Meanings and Actors in the Early Moments of Social Impact Investing

Speciation in Nascent Markets: Collective learning through cultural and material scaffolding

“…Empirically, our study contributes to our understanding of the social investment and impact investment markets (Hannigan & Casasnovas, 2020; Hehenberger et al, 2019; Nicholls & Teasdale, 2017; Yan, Almandoz, & Ferraro, 2021). While the focus of our empirical analysis has been the United Kingdom, its pioneering role in Europe and globally (for example, the ‘best practice’ of creating a wholesaler intermediary such as Big Society Capital has been diffused to several countries) makes our findings resonate with the emergence of these markets in different geographies.…”

“…The practice of investing with the objective of achieving financial returns together with a positive and measurable social impact (Höchstädter & Scheck, 2015) has attracted significant interest from policy makers, investors and social sector organizations around the globe since 2010 (Spiess-Knafl & Achleitner, 2012). While the terms used to describe this practice differ depending on the country and the period, we use the two terms that were more common in the UK during the period of our study: social investment and impact investment (Hannigan & Casasnovas, 2020). As we summarize in Table 1, the label 'social investment' was born in the UK and refers more specifically to providing repayable finance for social sector organizations (Daggers & Nicholls, 2016), defined by Big Society Capital as those that 'exist wholly or mainly to provide benefits for society or the environment' (Big Society Capital, 2018), which include registered charities and community interest companies.…”

“…Our model contributes to this broader body of research by suggesting that, under some conditions, successful cooptation might only be one of the outcomes, as the nascent market may have split into two or more branches. This points at the importance of studying the diversity of approaches in nascent markets (Hannigan & Casasnovas, 2020), as some of the early practices or infrastructure can become the building blocks of future market developments or spin-offs from the main path (Schneiberg, 2007).…”

Engaging in a New Field: Business Owning Families’ Differential Approach to Impact Investing

“…As acknowledged by practitioners, "impact investing is a big tent" (Sullivan, 2021) and there is still no consensus on how to define it (Bugg-Levine & Emerson, 2011;Hannigan & Casasnovas, 2020;Höchstädter & Scheck, 2015). The European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) refers to "impact investing" as "investing for impact" and broadly defines it as "financial activities related to social and environmental causes".…”

“…who are negotiating how II ought to be done (Hehenberger, Mair, & Metz, 2019). Recent literature on the subject acknowledges the crucial role of diverse actors such as investment funds, high-net-worth-individuals, and policy makers in shaping the field of II (Hannigan & Casasnovas, 2020;Hehenberger et al, 2019). In parallel, a thriving practitioner's literature highlight business-owning families (BOF) as key actors in the development of the field (Hand, (Hand, Dithrich, Sunderji, & Nova, 2020;UBS, 2019UBS, , 2020World Economic Forum, 2014).…”