The social impact investment race: toward an interpretative framework

Abstract

Purpose: the aim of this paper is to develop an interpretative framework of the evolution of Social Impact Investment (SII) in different countries. SII is a strategy of asset allocation, which combines financial profitability with a measurable social and environmental impact. Methodology: through a thematic analysis of 75 documents, i.e. reports, experts' considerations, reflections on practitioners' experience, meetings' minutes, written by the SII Taskforce of the Group of Eight and the relative National Advisory Boards, we identify the main themes connected to the topic of SII development and recognize four main elements useful to segment the market, namely information asymmetry, financial instruments, source of capital and market intermediation. Findings: they map the ongoing practices in the Group of Eight's members and distinguish two speeds in the evolution of SII: on one hand, there is a group of road runners, which pave the way to SII and in which SII activities have being institutionalized; on the other hand, there is a wider group of chasers, where the SII infrastructures lack any systematization. Originality: even if some authors have provided preliminary interpretations of the SII evolution, they mainly focus on national level, and do not provide any crosscountries analysis. The findings of the present work contribute to overcome the lack of evidence characterizing the SII field and the absence of comparable and consistent data at global level by filling the academic literature about SII, through a structured interpretative framework.

From performance measurement to performance management in the impact investment industry

“…When asked to define impact investing, the interviewees mentioned that numerous different definitions of impact investing are used both in the Netherlands and internationally, suggesting that no definition of impact investing is used consistently among investors. This is in line with studies that indicate regional differences, as well as differences between institutions, and individuals (Jackson 2013b;Calderini et al 2018). Despite the fact that the participants mentioned different definitions and characteristics of impact investments, five out of thirteen of the investors referred to the impact investing definition of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN).…”

“…Some argued that they fear that the definition of impact investing will diminish (Participants 1, 4, 5 and 8). The lack of clearness of the impact investing definition is also recognized by Olsen and Galimidi (2008) and Calderini et al (2018). Other impact investors indicated challenges in classifying impact investments into different asset classes (Participant 5).…”

The Impact of Social Enterprises: A Bibliometric Analysis From 1991 to 2020

“…These findings form the basis for providing support to the scientific research sector, third sector agents, investors, and all stakeholders working with social entrepreneurs to better understand the focus on which research and social enterprises will need to concentrate in order to generate social impact. First, researchers question whether the social impact focus can generate transparency and accountability applied to all nonprofit but also for-profit contexts, as the current literature provides us with additional distinctions in this category: for impact and without impact (Calderini et al, 2018;Clark et al, 2004;Meneguzzo, 2005).…”

Foundations of Banking Origin and Social Rating Philosophy—A New Proposal for an Evaluation System

“…Although the aforementioned are the main donors, a generalization is not reachable, as recent studies suggest that SII market configurations are not evolving equally across national contexts. There are countries in which SII market is moving towards more systemic configurations, while there are others in which SII interventions left poor room for experimentation and risk-taking [46]. Therefore, in different contexts, a different actor may play a pivotal role.…”