Social Impact Investments: Does an Alternative to the Anglo-Saxon Paradigm Exist?

Abstract

This paper aims to study the characteristics of the Social Impact Investment (SII) market in the absence of its enablers. After the first SII convention in 2007, SII practices have been diffusing especially in the Anglo-Saxon countries, which are often referred to as the pioneers in this field. In these countries, SII markets are small but rather advanced in comparison with the rest of the world, and some remarkable cases, such as the launch of the first social impact bond or the establishment of impact funds, have been taken as a reference model worldwide. The final result is an Anglo-Saxon paradigm for SII, which inspires the debate in other countries. The term “paradigm” refers to the presence of some factors that helped the development of the SII market, such as the commitment of highly capitalized foundations, the birth of specialized intermediaries and the endorsement of the state. However, the extent to which the absence of these facilitating factors prevent the SII diffusion or if an alternative to the Anglo-Saxon paradigm can exist is still a question, at the base of this paper. Thus, the objective of this research is to analyse who can play a role in the SII development and how players organize in such circumstances. The study looks at the Italian scenery, through the lens of the network theory. Results show that organizations do not renounce to SII and can play several roles to catalyse the market, using different collaborative configurations.