Abstract
The 2008 financial crisis unveiled the intrinsic failures of the financial system as we know it. As a consequence, impact investing started to receive increasing attention, as evidenced by the high market growth rates. The goal of impact investment is to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. In this paper we identify the main players in the sector and how they interact and communicate with each other. We use Twitter as a proxy of the impact investing market, and analyze relevant tweets posted over a period of ten months. We apply network, contents and sentiment analysis on the acquired dataset.Our study shows that Twitter users exhibit favourable leaning (predominantly neutral or positive) towards impact investing. Retweet communities are decentralised and include users from a variety of sectors. Despite some basic common vocabulary used by all retweet communities identified, the vocabulary and the topics discussed by each community vary largely. We note that an additional effort should be made in raising awareness about the sector, especially by policymakers and media outlets. The role of investors and the academia is also discussed, as well as the emergence of hybrid business models within the sector and its connections to the tech industry. This paper extends our previous study, one of the first analyses of Twitter activities in the impact investing market.
Highlights
Since 2000, a new international movement, led by public institutions and private capital along, has started emerging and growing
For the purpose of this paper, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) definition (GIIN 2018) will be used: “Impact investing consists of investments made into companies, organisations, and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental
According to the GIIN, the 2016’s total impact investment (114 billion US$ reported by 208 investors) registered an increase of 48% from 2015 (77 billion US$ in total assets reported by 158 investors) and 90% from 2014 (60 billion US$ in assets reported by 146 investors)
Summary
Since 2000, a new international movement, led by public institutions and private capital along, has started emerging and growing. The objective was to have a financial system that could better serve society and tackle societal challenges, such as climate change, mass migration and aging populations. This innovative wave continued to grow until 2007, when the term “impact investing” was coined and since an increasing number of policy makers, traditional investors, investees and not-for-profit organisations have shown interest, curiosity, passion or skepticism towards it. For the purpose of this paper, the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) definition (GIIN 2018) will be used: “Impact investing consists of investments made into companies, organisations, and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental. Impact investment seeks below-market or marketrate returns and it differs from grants which are donations of funds with no expectation of financial returns
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