Impact Investing

Abstract

This chapter reviews literature on impact investing and maps the impact investing ecosystem. It finds that the academic work in impact investing is of a nascent field of research, in which there is considerable interest and potential, but currently no substantial core of ideas, theory, or data. The academic contributions to date are scattered and disparate, coming from diverse perspectives and approaching a range of topics that sometimes share little common ground. Overall, this chapter offers a contribution towards the institutionalization of impact investing as an area of both research and practice. This research suggests a pathway towards creating a body of work that is built upon a core set of ideas and theories that has a clear identity and commonly agreed upon definitions and that represents the progressive accumulation of knowledge.