Business models for sustainability (BMfS) are relevant topics on research agendas, given their orientation toward sustainability issues. However, traditional versions of these models are often ill-equipped at solving complex social problems. Cross-sector partnerships for sustainability (CSPfS) have been recognized as a new paradigm that mitigates the failure of traditional models. Impact investing, and social impact bonds (SIBs) in particular, represent an interesting field of research in innovative business models for sustainable finance, even though the literature does not consider SIBs within this broader field. We propose an exploratory study based on qualitative methods aimed at conceptualizing SIBs within the framework of BMfS and understanding how SIB collaboration varies across social sectors and geographical areas. Our study identifies three different models of SIBs characterized by the different degrees of collaboration between actors: (i) SIB as a fully collaborative partnership; (ii) SIB as a low-collaborative partnership; and (iii) SIB as a partially collaborative partnership. Our findings are useful to policy makers and practitioners involved in the SIB design, suggesting that a fully collaborative SIB model may stand a better chance of achieving the expected social impacts.

Business Models for Sustainable Finance: The Case Study of Social Impact Bonds

This study reviews all the academic contributions to research on social impact bonds (SIBs). It responds to the need for clarification across and within the various perspectives used in the literature. The goal was to assess the approaches used in extant studies and to offer directions for future studies. A bibliometric analysis was performed, and a framework was developed in which the contributions were positioned according to two criteria: (a) a distinction on the basis of research approaches and perspectives on SIBs and (b) an analysis of content according to a protocol that includes key questions corresponding with the most pressing issues in this area.

Social impact bonds: The evolution of research and a review of the academic literature

This explorative study examines how local and refugee entrepreneurs team up on social entrepreneurial initiatives and combine their strengths and resources to construct, evaluate and pursue new opp...

Co-Creation of Social Entrepreneurial Opportunities with Refugees

This article contributes to the consolidation and synthesis of scholarship on collaborative governance by expanding our knowledge of how the term is used in the academic literature and policy docum ...

The fuzzy concept of collaborative governance: A systematic review of the state of the art

A Decade of Research Published in the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship: A Review and a Research Agenda

Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) bring together organizations from various sectors, with different organizational logics. Successful cross-sector collaboration, therefore, is challenging. In this paper, the collaborative learning process between partners of the SIB The Colour Kitchen (The Netherlands) is analysed. By analysing a good practice case, this paper shows (1) how collaborative governance theory helps to understand the dynamics of an SIB partnership, (2) provides insight into theoretical and empirical favourable conditions and actions for collaboration in an SIB, and (3) illustrates the complexity of SIBs and shows why such a normative proposition is still not widely practised.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19420676.2017.1299034

Dominique Jozef Alfons Smeets

Papers

Collaborative Learning Processes in Social Impact Bonds: A Case Study from the Netherlands