Varieties of Impact Investing: Creating and Translating a Label in Local Contexts

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Philip Balsiger (University of Neuchâtel) Daniel Burnier (University of Neuchâtel)

Varieties of Impact Investing

Creating and Translating a Label in Local Contexts

Philip Balsiger (University of Neuchâtel), Daniel Burnier (University of Neuchâtel), Noé Kabouche (University of Neuchâtel and Sciences Po Paris)

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English

Bristol University Press
13 October 2025

Development studies; Business ethics

Series: Business, Finance and International Development

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

A new trend in ethical finance, impact investing aims to generate positive social or environmental impacts alongside financial returns. But what does it really mean and how is it practiced across different regions and organizations?

This volume explores the malleability of impact investing and how it overlaps with the development sphere to give finance a new role. From global networks to the Global South, it compares diverse investing practices and discourses.

Providing an original perspective on this emerging field, this is a key resource for the scholars of social studies of finance, economic sociology, management and organization studies.

Edited by: Philip Balsiger (University of Neuchâtel), Daniel Burnier (University of Neuchâtel), Noé Kabouche (University of Neuchâtel and Sciences Po Paris)
Imprint: Bristol University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781529252569
ISBN 10: 1529252563
Series: Business, Finance and International Development
Pages: 242
Publication Date: 13 October 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Undergraduate , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. The Pursuit of Impact in the Specificities of Place and Time – Philip Balsiger, Daniel Burnier and Noé Kabouche 2. Impact and ‘Impact’: Labelling and Identity in Finance – Marc Brightman and Aneil Tripathy Part 1: Translating the Impact Label into National and Transnational Contexts 3. Socio-genesis of the Impact Investing World in France – Eve Chiapello and Camille Roth 4. The Regional Development of an International Phenomenon: How the Geneva Financial Field Framed Impact Investing – Noé Kabouche, Philip Balsiger and Daniel Burnier 5. Impact Investing at the Aga Khan Development Network: Origins of Innovative Financing Mechanisms – Farwa Sial and Jessica Sklair 6. Leverage as a Political Tactic: The Case of Social Impact Investing in Britain – Philipp Golka 7. Social Impact Investing in Italy: A Case of Weak Financialization? – Davide Caselli 8. Top-down Plus Bottom-up: Building the Market for Impact Investing in Spain – Lisa Hehenberger and Guillermo Casanovas Part 2: Enacting Impact in Investment Practices 9. Defining and Implementing ‘Impact’: Negotiating Meanings and Shifting Interpretations – Claudia Campisano 10. Social Impact as a Negotiated and Collective Process – Guillaume Dumont 11. The Social Structures of Impact: A Case Study of French Impact Startups – Vincent Himmer 12. Market Exchange and Power Cornerstones: Local Understandings of Impact Investing in Nigeria – Elena Christodoulou and Shonali Banerjee 13. ‘Low-hanging Mangoes’: On Social Impact Bonds in Colombia – Natalia Gómez Muñoz 14. Blockchain as an ‘Anti-politics Machine’: Web3-based Impact Investing and the Reproduction of Inequalities – Riccardo De Cristano 15. Conclusion – Emily Barman

Philip Balsiger is Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland. Daniel Burnier Lecturer at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Noé Kabouche is a postdoctoral researcher in Sociology at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, France.

Reviews for Varieties of Impact Investing: Creating and Translating a Label in Local Contexts

‘Social scientists need to analyze problems with a critical mind. Only then can we inspire change. I recommend academics, practitioners and policymakers interested in impact investing to read this book!’ Lisa Hehenberger, ESADE Business School Barcelona ‘As claims made for finance’s role to contribute to public goods continue to grow, this collection of detailed case studies critically interrogates the ‘impact investing’ label, affording nuanced insights into this contradictory and still-emerging field.' Marc Andrew Brightman, University of Bologna