We are happy to share that a co-authored article by Carolina Herrera-Cano, a second-year PhD student at WiSE, has recently been published. The academic paper “Aligning Investment with Impact: Exploring Social Impact Bonds in Emerging Markets for Sustainable Development” is available in the Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management journal’s[1] most recent issue (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/csr.3078). In this article, Carolina and her colleagues from Universidad EAFIT in Colombia[2] explored investor motivations and the contribution to sustainable development goals of social impact bonds (SIBs) in emerging markets.
Social impact bonds (SIBs) are payment-by-results (PbR) contracts structured upon achieving specific outcomes. They have been used globally for sustainable development projects, and Colombia became the first emerging market country to implement them effectively. Through qualitative analysis of in-depth stakeholder interviews, the research identified that Colombian SIB investors are primarily driven by organisational learning, social impact generation and strategic alignment with core business objectives rather than financial returns. SIBs, therefore, offer a pathway for achieving corporate social responsibility (CSR) objectives by joining private investment with public goals. Moreover, SIBs can become a mechanism with the potential to promote sustainable development objectives, such as economic justice and women’s empowerment, in emerging markets.
This research was derived from a consultancy project developed for the IDB Lab of the Inter-American Development Bank and sponsored by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, Fundación Corona and SIBsCO. The non-theoretical results of this study are published in Spanish in a policy report: Inversionistas en Colombia: estudio sobre la experiencia de los inversionistas en el marco del Programa de Bonos de Impacto Social de Colombia: https://maspxr.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Estudio_Inversionistas_BIS_SIBS.CO_EAFIT-2.pdf.
[1] Velez‐Valencia, C., Herrera‐Cano, C., Gonzalez‐Perez, M. A., Alvarez, P., & Vergara Garavito, J. (2024). Aligning Investment With Impact: Exploring Social Impact Bonds in Emerging Markets for Sustainable Development. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 0, 1–14.
[2]
Cristina Velez-Valencia, School of Business, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia.
Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, School of Business, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia.
Pilar Alvarez, School of Finance, Economics and Government, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia.
Judith Vergara Garavito, School of Finance, Economics and Government, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia.
[1] Velez‐Valencia, C., Herrera‐Cano, C., Gonzalez‐Perez, M. A., Alvarez, P., & Vergara Garavito, J. (2024). Aligning Investment With Impact: Exploring Social Impact Bonds in Emerging Markets for Sustainable Development. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 0, 1–14.
Cristina Velez-Valencia, School of Business, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia.
Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, School of Business, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia.
Pilar Alvarez, School of Finance, Economics and Government, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia.
Judith Vergara Garavito, School of Finance, Economics and Government, Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia.
Be First to Comment