Since the economic crisis triggered in 2008, the concept of impact investing emerged. Impact investing has initially been a term coined by the Rockefeller Foundation. Impact creation was necessary “because governments, charities, philanthropists alone were no longer capable of dealing with the twenty-first century’s social and environmental challenges. Focussing on the act of charitable giving rather than on achieving social outcomes and a dependence on unpredictable funding hindered many charitable organisations from realizing their full potential concerning innovations, effectiveness and scale” (Brandstetter & Lehner, 2015). The World Economic Forum recently acknowledged the role the investment and finance sector can play in creating solutions to social problems and stated: “Given the nature of how resources are distributed in the world, private investors may have a special role and responsibility in addressing social challenges” (World Economic Forum, 2013). Yet apart from a small number of specialized forms of impact investing like social impact bonds, green bonds, and mission-related philanthropic investments, little is known about the complex interplay between entrepreneurs or organizations, intermediaries, investor regulations, and the successful use of instruments in the field. Glänzel and Scheuerle (2016) use the term social impact investing to clearly distinguish from finance first approaches of impact investing that have a stronger commercial orientation. Hummels (2014) places impact investing in the wider category of responsible investing, considering it just one component. Hebb (2013), Pretorius and Giamporcaro (2012), Viviers and Firer (2013), and Viviers et al. (2011) view impact investing as “responsible investing.” Shulman and George (2012) consider impact investing as a form of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). Geobey and Weber (2013) highlight a distinction: SRI screens out investments for social, environmental, or governance reasons, while impact investing assumes that investments can create financial returns and address social and environmental challenges simultaneously. Impact investing is also included by many authors in the social finance landscape (Suetin, 2011; Geobey & Weber, 2013; Geobey et al., 2012; Mendell & Barbosa, 2013; Weber, 2013, 2016).
