A multistakeholder approach to impact investing: Focus on institutional investors and key dimensions

Abstract

Impact investing has emerged as a promising sustainable investment strategy to advance environmental, social, and governance objectives. However, there is no theoretical consensus on its definition, and assessments of its widespread adoption across markets and integration into regulatory frameworks remain incomplete. This research explored the key dimensions of impact investing relevant to institutional investors: intentionality, additionality, attribution, returns, measurement and materiality. We sought to uncover factors that contribute to its unequal deployment across different layers of the financial sector and to identify further research avenues that could foster its broader application. To achieve this, a multistakeholder approach was employed. This involved a bibliometric review, a focus group with experts from diverse sectors (i.e. financial institutions, service providers, academia and non-profit organizations), a systematic review of the dimensions of impact investing, and a structured questionnaire administered to market practitioners. The findings underscore the need for tailored adjustments to the impact investing framework, particularly for listed equities, and advocate its incorporation into sustainable finance regulations. This study offers valuable contributions to both market practitioners and academia by identifying the first forms of consensus on this topic and incipient evidence for intentionality, additionality and attribution claims. Avenues for further research on risk mitigation mechanisms for institutional investors operating in private markets and the interaction of impact investing with sustainable finance European Union (EU) regulation schemes are also provided.