Impact investing is gaining global attention from society, governments and businesses. Increasingly, it is seen as a new paradigm to deal with the economic crisis and curtailed public budgets, an answer to the diversified needs of society. It now ranks high on the policy agenda of governments and international organizations, and private investors are searching for new investment opportunities to channel the liquidity available. This book is the first to look at impact investing as a "refocus" of venture capital to sustain the development of societal impact enterprises. Principles and Practice of Impact Investing collects chapters from international experts on the subject, discussing the foundations of the movement, analysing leading international cases and debating future trends in the field. It also includes interviews with some of the most influential stakeholders of impact investing across the world. The book is an inspirational and practical guide for actors and stakeholders to enable better understanding of impact investing. Taking an international perspective, the chapters primarily deal with mature economies, setting it apart from the existing literature focused on emerging countries. The book will be of interests to practitioners and executives, as well as researchers and MBA students.

Discover how to invest your capital to achieve a powerful, lasting impact on the world. The Global Handbook of Impact Investing: Solving Global Problems Via Smarter Capital Markets Towards A More Sustainable Society is an insightful guide to the growing world-wide movement of Impact Investing. Impact investors seek to realize lasting, beneficial improvements in society by allocating capital to sources of impactful and sustainable profit. This Handbook is a how-to guide for institutional investors, including family offices, foundations, endowments, governments, and international organizations, as well as academics, students, and everyday investors globally. The Handbook ́s wide-ranging contributions from around the world make a powerful case for positive impact and profit to fund substantive, lasting solutions that solve critical problems across the world. Edited by two experienced and distinguished professionals in the sustainable investing arena and authored by two dozen renowned experts from finance, academia, and multilateral organizations from around the world, the Global Handbook of Impact Investing educates, inspires, and spurs action towards more responsible investing across all asset classes, resulting in smarter capital markets, including how to: · Realize positive impact and profit · Integrate impact into investment decision-making and portfolio · Allocate impactful investments across all asset classes · Apply unique Impact Investing frameworks · Measure, evaluate and report on impact · Learn from case examples around the globe · Pursue Best Practices in Impact Investing and impact reporting While other resources may take a local or limited approach to the subject, this Handbook gathers global knowledge and results from public and private institutions spanning five continents. The authors also make a powerful case for the ability of Impact Investing to lead to substantive and lasting change that addresses critical problems across the world.

Innovations and consequently future-fitness must form new models and address existing hurdles and new forms of collaborations. They must enable faster innovation cycles and "intelligence mining" by combining open and closed source systems, organic communities, open space techniques and cross-fertilization. Innovations must apply to and integrate incubation and acceleration networks. This book explores new concepts for future-fitness with five capitals: financial, ecological, social/cultural, human/personal, and manufactured/technological. It offers a new integral framework bringing researchers and business leaders together in one volume.

This book provides a preliminary attempt to understand the impact investors’ preferences and characteristics. It offers an empirical insight of the main features characterizing social risk of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and explores the correlation existing between social risk and financial return. It assesses case studies of social impact investment architectures and their legal and operational limits. It also analyzes new trends in social impact measurement, focusing on the Spanish and Swedish experiences. The book concludes with a road map of priorities and policy strategy for social impact investments development.

This book aims to clarify the concept of impact investing by combing the international experience and the practices in China, promote the standardization of the measurement and evaluation system of impact investing, contribute to the establishment of an impact investing ecosystem in China, and guide investment to consider both the social and environmental impact and profitability. This book mainly contains four parts: the definition of impact investing and the similarities and differences with other related concepts; the development, characteristics and trends of global impact investing; the development and the current situation of impact investing in China; a case study in China.

Generation Impact fills a significant gap in the impact accounting literature about how ambitions, pressures, and misgivings can be addressed, dealt with, and harnessed into forward-looking programmes for the creation, measurement, and management in social accounting.

The UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment initiative has led to around a third of the world’s financial assets being managed with a commitment to invest in a way that considers environmental, social or governance (ESG) criteria. The responsible investment trend has increased dramatically since the global financial crisis, yet understanding of this field remains at an early stage. This handbook provides an atlas of current practice in the field of responsible investment. With a large global team of expert contributors, the book explores the impact of responsible investment on key financial actors ranging from mainstream asset managers to religious organizations. Offering students and researchers a comprehensive introduction to current scholarship and international structures in the expanding discipline of responsible investment, this handbook is vital reading across the fields of finance, economics and accounting.

This book explores three particular strategies in the extractives sector for creating shared wealth, increased labour opportunities and positive social, environmental and economic outcomes from corporate projects, namely: state wealth funds (SWF), local content policies (LCP) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Collectively, the chapters explore the associated experiences and challenges in different parts of the world with the view to inform equitable and sustainable development for the communities living adjacent to extractives sites and the wider society and environment. Examples of LCPs, SWFs and CSR practices from 12 jurisdictions with diverse experiences offer usefull insights. The book illuminates challenges and opportunities for sustainable development outcomes of the extractives sector. It reflects the need to take on board the lessons of these global experiences in order to improve outcomes for poverty reduction, inequality reduction and sustainable development.

The alternative financing space has grown exponentially in the last few decades, namely as a consequence of the financial crisis, technological advancement, niche customer segments, and more recently the pandemic. Now, with the inclusion of Fintech, online lenders, crowdfunding, accelerators, venture capitalists, or angel investors, this funding channel is no longer seen as a substitute for formal financing, but rather a core one. This book is a comprehensive guide to alternative financing methods, offering insights into emerging trends, the role of FinTech, and the intersection of finance with sustainability, innovation, and entrepreneurship. It fills a knowledge gap by exploring innovative financing channels such as fintech, green finance, and venture capital as well as other non-traditional ways of raising funds, which have become crucial for startups and businesses. It discusses the impact of financial technology (FinTech) on these methods and their function in supporting entrepreneurship and sustainable business, while also examining the implications of these technological advancements in the wider financial sector. It addresses challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs and explores how alternative financing options can support growth and innovation, particularly in the context of environmentally and socially focused ventures, including how to integrate economic, social, and environmental considerations. The emphasis on sustainability and green finance aligns with the growing global concern for responsible business practices and the Sustainable Development Goals. While the primary audience for the book is scholars, researchers, and students, the inclusion of case studies, and the exploration of various financing options, extends practical cues for policymakers and practitioners and contributes to the understanding of how finance, entrepreneurship, and sustainability intersect in real-world business scenarios.