Social Impact Funds

Fund managers acting as impact investors: Strategies, practices, and tensions

“…Only one fund manager established an ethical committee to validate the social impact of each investee ex‐ante and ex‐post (Case D), despite the fact that the presence of an impact committee or, at least, a chief impact officer is a reasonably relevant corporate governance component for a fund manager acting as an impact investor (Chiappini, 2017; Geczy et al, 2020). The lack of a specific governance body able to address impact issues is partially balanced by the presence of an impact specialist on the management team (Case C) or by appointing at least one expert on impact measurement to the investment committee or the advisory board (Case B).…”

“…The literature on impact investment funds, fund managers or a set of them, such as venture capital impact investors, is still scarce (Barber et al, 2021), however, three main phases of research development may be identified. In a first phase, a longitudinal review of studies (Chiappini, 2017) identified 21 contributions on impact investment funds, including single case study analyses (e.g., GIIN, 2012; Vecchi et al, 2015), multiple case study analyses (e.g., Clark et al, 2013; Rodin & Brandenburg, 2014), and industry overviews (e.g., Cambridge Associated & GIIN, 2015; Mudaliar & Barra, 2015) published in reports, book chapters, and in a handful of academic articles. The main research streams identified by the review concern the conceptualization of impact funds, the role played in the mainstream impact investment market, factors that foster the success of impact funds, and a mere description of financial performance.…”

“…Then, a second phase of research has seen the emergence of the impact washing theme. The studies by Chiappini (2017), Cetindamar and Ozkazanc‐Pan (2017), and Findlay and Moran (2019), although using different conceptualizations of impact investing, overall conclude that impact washing is high risk for the impact fund industry, thus mandatory regulation protecting investors and fostering market growth is desirable.…”

“…Compared to other impact investments, there is relatively little research published on impact funds (Chiappini, 2017; Findlay & Moran, 2019), although these financial vehicles are considered one of the market makers of the impact investment sector (Cetindamar & Ozkazanc‐Pan, 2017; Nicholls et al, 2015; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2019) and there is a call for a deeper analysis of this industry (Agrawal & Hockerts, 2019; Cetindamar & Ozkazanc‐Pan, 2017). Research has paid much more attention to other impact investment products, such as social impact bonds (e.g., Broccardo et al, 2020; Fraser et al, 2018) and the related collaborative business models (La Torre et al, 2019).…”

Design of Strategies for the Implementation and Management of a Complementary Monetary System Using the SWOT-AHP Methodology

“…Motta, Dini and Sartori [22] highlight the opportunity that complementary monetary systems provide to promote social impact investments, those investments in projects that combine a social and environmental impact without sacrificing the economic sustainability and financial profitability of the CSMS itself [80][81][82].…”