Investing for Impact: An evaluation of Finnish social impact bonds and their cross-border transferability
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Date
2019
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Management and International Business (MIB)
Language
en
Pages
84 + 14
Series
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to identify institutional factors inherent in Finnish culture as well as outside contexts so that Finnish Social Impact Bond models may be successfully transferred across borders. The research question of the thesis is: How can Finnish models for Social Impact Bonds be transferred to cross-border contexts? This thesis has contributed to various theoretical perspectives by adding to existing literature on institutionalism, organizational learning and knowledge transfer, and social impact assessment. The aim of this research was to understand the relationship between institutions and knowledge transfer established by various scholars in connection to social impact, a new area of study, and to provide a more robust sense of how to operate in this emergent field. This has been accomplished through the use of a new theoretical framework, which takes into account Finnish institutions as well as those in outside contexts, and the activities that will allow for successful knowledge transfer, as highlighted in the literature review. The research was conducted through an intensive single case study on the organization, Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund. Sitra was chosen as the case company due to their tremendous efforts in establishing Finland as a leader in the outcomes-based contracting industry, and particularly Social Impact Bond modeling. The qualitative approach was enhanced through interviews with six employees of Sitra, all within the impact investing team, and publicly available documents regarding Finland and Sitra’s current bonds, bond modeling structure, and implementation practices. The findings of the study have been in alignment with the literature discussed. Although some institutional aspects of outside contexts were difficult to determine in order to successfully transfer the Finnish models across borders, the findings do specify institutional factors to take into account and detailed activities to be implemented when building a bond model in other countries. The institutional factors found to be pertinent to successful implementation of a bond project were inherent in society, government, and the stakeholders working on the project, as well as supportive organizations such as Sitra. The findings also established activities such as collaboration, building ecosystems, use of platforms for knowledge dissemination, learning from experience, and mindset changes to be the most important for success of the model. This study has found a variety of contributions to theory, practical implications for practitioners in the impact investing industry, and many areas for future research in this field. This research provided a new theoretical framework that bridges the gap between various theoretical perspectives in a forthcoming field, while offering insight to organizations seeking to implement their own projects.Description
Thesis advisor
Mihailova, IrinaKeywords
impact investing, social impact bonds, social impact assessment, knowledge transfer, international business, Sitra, Finland