Позитивные изменения. Том 1, №1 (2021). Positive changes. Volume 1, Issue 1 (2021)

Institutional asset owners are increasingly interested in incorporating social and environmental factors into their portfolios and investments strategies. The pandemic, the climate crisis, and other social and environmental challenges have all signaled a fundamental need for change — to allocate more capital into investment products that incorporate some consideration for the real-world outcomes that the investments generate.

Institutional asset owners have an immense opportunity to generate change, as they possess both the capital and scale to address the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges while meeting their fiduciary duty. In order to achieve this potential, institutional asset owners must set impact priorities and targets; however, many face challenges doing so. This research brief is the first in a series, focused on helping such asset owners do this work more efficiently and effectively.

The report dives into these investors’ approaches to setting impact priorities and targets — unpacking challenges they face when assessing impact priorities, identifying ways of turning these challenges into opportunities to achieve greater impact, and outlining next steps investors can take to set targets and integrate social and environmental priorities into their investment processes. Specifically, the report offers insights and practical examples into how institutional asset owners are integrating real-world outcomes, or impact, into their portfolios and investment strategies alongside risk and return and within a fiduciary context.

https://thegiin.org/assets/Institutional%20Asset%20Owners_Approaches%20to%20setting%20social%20and%20environmental%20goals.pdf

IMPACT INVESTING: REVIEW AND RESEARCH AGENDA

2021, Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Agrawal Anirudh, Hockerts Kai

Impact investing is an emerging alternative asset class. In the last few years, the investment in impact investing has grown many folds, however the research has not kept pace with the growing practitioner interest. The lack of knowledge about the field coupled with the lack of knowledge production of field might be dangerous in the long run. This is a systematic review of impact investing. This systematic review involves study of 85 published articles and reports. This literature was collected using the harzing’s publish or perish academic search engine and cross-checked against databases such as JSTOR and Web of Science. This review has four major contributions. First, the study reveals a unique longitudinal perspective on how the field is evolving and moving from pre-paradigm stage to the stage of proper scientific inquiry. It reveals that the field is evolving, as the reviewed literatures find that a higher number of empirical works were published recently. Second, the field impact investing is unique on six characteristics namely (1) capital invested, (2) degree of engagement with the investee, (3) process of selection, (4) social and commercial outcomes, (5) reporting outcomes, and (6) government role. Third, it reveals that the scholarship in the field has been mostly exploratory. Only recently the field is engaging in confirmatory studies. The research methods have used existing databases or existing single or multiple case studies. Finally, the field has to delve deeper into concepts like selection process, stakeholder management, opportunity recognition, and performance reporting to move the field forward and generate applied knowledge.

https://research.cbs.dk/files/61429775/anirudh_agrawal_et_al_impact_investing_acceptedversion.pdf

IMPACT INVESTING AND PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATIONS: STRATEGIES DEPLOYED WHEN ALIGNING FIDUCIARY DUTY AND SOCIAL MISSION

2021, Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment.

Badri Zolfaghari

This article investigates the factors that prevent and facilitate impact investing strategies for philanthropic foundations to align their capital with their mission. Using qualitative data from foundations in both the US and South Africa, we identify five factors (i.e. mandate and country legislation, internal skills capacities, supporting infrastructure, market capacity and strong leadership) that pertain to the international foundations located in the North, and three factors pertaining to foundations in the South (i.e. understanding of fiduciary duty, the role of financial advisors and tax legislation) which influence the deployment and uptake of impact investing strategies. Findings also suggest that the adoption of a total portfolio management approach is the most adequate strategy to align fiduciary duty and mission, and therefore resolve this ethical tension that can be present in foundations. It concludes with suggestions for future theory and practice.