Позитивные изменения. Том 2, № 2 (2022). Positive changes. Volume 2, Issue 2 (2022)

This article discusses approaches to the establishment of a sustainable development concept. The authors cite various scientists’ debatable opinions on adapting the English word «sustainability» into Russian language and consider the options for replacing this term. Various researchers’ views on the definition of "sustainable development" are considered. The main sources of the reference base of this category are highlighted. The author investigates the place of sustainable development among other sciences, analyzes its relevance, indicates the motivation for application and highlights the problems of its research. The author also considers the relationship between the magnitude of costs and the effectiveness of sustainability actions. The paper proposes a methodology for building an information map of social investment vectors. Data from the largest corporations representing various sectors of the Russian business community is used for analysis. The companies’ investments are classified into four areas, based on the beneficiary (the company itself or the society) and application (internal or external investment). A correlation model used in the article demonstrates a direct relationship between social investment per employee and net profit volumes. The proposed methodology is relatively simple and universal in application to companies of different profiles and scales of operation. A further investigation of other variables that may affect the companies’ income levels is recommended. This approach can establish the basis for rating sustainability performance of various companies, providing a more reasonable pattern of causal relationships between various aspects of corporate social investment and company performance.

https://clck.ru/ia3A4

ARE BUSINESS ETHICS EFFECTIVE? A MARKET FAILURES APPROACH TO IMPACT INVESTING

2022, Journal of Business Ethics. Rodney Schmidt

We evaluate the effectiveness of impact investing from the perspective of the market failures approach (MFA) to business ethics. Under the MFA, businesses are ethically obligated to contribute to market efficiency by mitigating market failures. The MFA ethics literature emphasizes a negative externality interpretation of market failures, with ethical practice as self-regulation. We argue that the MFA also obligates businesses, and investors, to produce positive externalities, a form of private provision of public goods. We develop a graphical MFA ethical framework addressed to impact investing. The framework is based on impact projects’ dual financial and social returns. Dual returns trade-offs originate in market failures and increase with positive externalities. In practice, a key determinant of market failure and the size of returns trade-offs is the availability of intermediate public goods. This varies systematically across sectors and country-markets. We identify the market circumstances under which impact investing is feasible. We show how provision of positive externalities mitigates market failures. We show that the effectiveness of impact investing depends on the interaction of the determinants of feasibility and of the size of project trade-offs. We show how government supporting intervention, through blended finance vehicles, can improve impact investing effectiveness. Finally, we show that evidence of actual patterns of impact investing across sectors and countries supports our analysis.

https://clck.ru/iZVoT

PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS IN AFRICA: IMPACT INVESTORS AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS THROUGH THE LENS OF THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS, CHAPTER IN WORLD SCIENTIFIC ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY, ETHICS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

2022, World Scientific Encyclopedia of Business Sustainability, Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Oluwaseun Oguntuase