Mapping the scientific research on Social Impact Bonds: setting the research agenda in a post-Covid era

Nathalie Lévy (1) , Rosella Carè (2) , Stella Carè

1 IRJI - Institut de recherche juridique interdisciplinaire
2 UniCa - Università degli Studi di Cagliari = University of Cagliari

This paper is a bibliometric review of 156 articles, between 2011 and 2022, on Social Impact Bonds (SIBs). We identified five research streams: (1) studies that place the origins of SIBs in the neoliberalism framework; (2) studies that consider SIBs as an evolution of the New Public Management approach; (3) studies that focus on conceptualizing SIBs as an impact investing approach rooted in the social finance landscape; (4) studies that look at SIBs as a funding source for social entrepreneurship; and (5) studies that detect an emerging phenomenon labelled as Sustainable Financial Partnerships for the SDGs. Our results suggests that the current literature is strongly based on those that we defined as “UK’s model” which is influencing the current use of SIBs and that there is still less “finance-based” research in this field. Finally, future research questions are proposed.

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Nathalie Lévy, Rosella Carè, Stella Carè. Mapping the scientific research on Social Impact Bonds: setting the research agenda in a post-Covid era. La société à l’ère du Covid-19 : causes, enjeux et conséquences d’une crise, Université de Tours, Qualipsy, IRJI, Vallorem, Mar 2022, Tours, France. ⟨hal-03951866⟩