Responsible finance, sustainability and constrained innovation

Sustainable finance encompasses a range of related names and concepts grouped under this generic term: ethical finance, responsible finance, impact finance and solidarity finance. What characterizes sustainable finance is a reinvention of investment, both in the values and aspirations of individual investors and in the practices of financial institutions by integrating social, environmental and governance criteria into their interventions. Finance is constantly innovating, driven by the changing economic and social context: new ways of financing companies are regularly emerging. The innovations for responsible and sustainable finance that are studied in this special issue of Innovations, Revue d'économie et de management de l'innovation are original and different: for example, social innovation venture capital funds or crypto-currencies that do not seem to be concerned a priori by sustainability issues.