ABSTRACT

The literature on Responsible Innovation (RI) has not yet fully addressed the role played by social finance (SF) in supporting projects and organizations engaged in the production of innovations that tackle grand societal challenges. This study addresses this gap by empirically examining how SF investors select potential investees and the principles they judge important in SF. Our findings show that SF investors apply a combination of criteria to select investment projects where entrepreneurial motivations, environmental, social and governance commitments, and the nature of the impacts being generated align with their portfolio's mission. Though not all SF investors in our sample had knowledge about the concept of responsibility, they nonetheless mobilized a broad set of principles that are closely aligned with the aims and practices of RI. More research is needed to clarify the type of resources SF use to support RI and the conditions under which these resources are provided.

摘要

有关责任创新 (RI) 的文献尚未完全阐述社会金融 (SF) 在支持从事创新以应对重大社会挑战的项目和组织方面所发挥的作用。本研究通过实证研究 SF 投资者如何选择潜在投资对象以及他们认为对 SF 重要的原则来解决这一差距。我们的研究结果表明，SF 投资者采用多种标准来选择投资项目，其中创业动机、环境、社会和治理承诺以及所产生的影响的性质与其投资组合的使命相一致。尽管我们样本中并非所有的 SF 投资者都了解责任的概念，但他们仍然运用了一系列与 RI 的目标和实践密切相关的原则。