Bücher der Reihe Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance

In particular, chapters focus on: The contextualization of social impact funds within the social impact investment market;The exploration of features, investment strategy and classification of funds;An in-depth analysis of the emergent literature;

This Palgrave Pivot aims to build a bridge between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable finance in financial markets. It investigates whether thematic social responsible funds obtain different risk-return than traditional funds, and finally, assesses whether equity crowdfunding could foster social innovation.

This Palgrave Pivot aims to examine the bourgeoning relationship between the Principles for Responsible Investment and the Credit Rating Industry. Since May of 2016, when the partnership was initially publicised, the PRI have endeavoured to incorporate Credit Rating Agencies into its initiative via its 'ESG in Credit Ratings Initiative', and have been working diligently to find, and create common ground between Credit Rating Agencies and Institutional Investors seeking to be more forward-looking in their investment approaches. However, in recent years the 'Big Two' Credit Rating Agencies - Standard & Poor's and Moody's - have finally received record fines for their conduct in the run-up to the Financial Crisis. There is a need, then, to examine the incorporation of the Credit Rating Agencies into such a progressive initiative. To achieve this objective, this book examines the field of 'responsible investing', the credit rating industry, and the power dynamic that exists between the rating industry, investors, and the PRI (via its 'Initiative').

This book introduces and explains how to conduct a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis. It discusses the various advantages and disadvantages of different research strategies and designs, and explores the different ways in which SROI analysis results can be used for communication, outreach, and strategic decision-making. It provides insights into how and to what extent SROI analyses can help to meet different expectations, and presents different social impact research designs and methods. It presents an analytical framework for the identification of a proper SROI analysis, and shows readers how to establish an impact model, introducing a stakeholder-based approach.

The innovative nature of research is expressed through the study of new phenomena in finance including sustainable financial systems, sustainable finance, ESG risk and individual and institutional motivations of financial managers in the sustainability concept.

This includes the potential role of digitalisation and blockchain in fostering green finance, the crucial role of the effective financing of the agriculture to reach climate and environmental targets and the possible relationship between sustainable finance and other forms of "alternative" finance.

Despite growing discussions on the relationship between sustainability and finance, so far little attention has been given to the relation linking sustainability-related risks and financial risks.