The Role of Social Impact Bond on Utilizing Impact Investment to Develop Asir District in Line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030: Academics and Economists' Perspectives

Abstract

The social impact bond (SIB) is a new tool for financing innovative social projects and impact investment. This financial method has since been introduced (Warner,2013) in the whole world. SIBs are a strategically double-edged policy tool and policymakers should be prudent about SIBs because of legitimate convolution and management, responsibility, and precision (Tan, et al., 2021). The current study aims to explore the perspectives of academics and economists on the role played by Social Impact Bond in utilizing impact investment to develop Asir district in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. The descriptive-analytical method was adopted by the researcher in this study to describe the responses of the study sample to its topic. Some indicators of the mean, standard deviation, and relative significance of each item of the study area were employed. This paper is eminently reflective, and the methodology on relies on an analytical research method. In addition, the results of 100 brief investigations collected in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are summed up to show the role played by Social Impact Bond in using Impact Investment and the circular economy's principles by businesses at the micro-level is underexplored in the literature. The findings of the study revealed that 82.3% of Academics and Economists perceive that the role played by social impact bond on utilizing impact investment to develop Asir district in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 is effective, and the percentage of approval on the domain was high in terms of the mean of 3.86. Also, the study showed that Academics and Economists perceive Social impact bonds to include a wide range of interested parties such as Saudi governmental bodies, and investors to work together significantly to set up a SIB has many advantages as the mean hits 4.48 with a percentage of97.8 %. In light of the results, the study recommends decision-making bodies assess carefully what is the value added for applying social impact bonds.