Social and Environmental Innovations and Impact Investing

Social and environmental innovations (SEIs) represent a major challenge given the often-negative consequences of economic growth. The new generations’ growing awareness of sustainability and solidarity issues is encouraging reflection and action to make innovation a means of reconfiguring economic models. The development of SEIs is, however, hampered by the gradual drying-up of public funding and an increasingly pressing demand for information from private investors on the real scope of the initiatives undertaken. In this particular context, Impact Investing (II) is being deployed, requiring measurement of the extra-financial impact of the investments made. While the question of the impact of SEIs and that of II echo each other, the research work devoted to them usually falls within two distinct disciplinary fields.

By offering a cross-disciplinary perspective, this special issue of Innovations. Revue d’économie et de management de l’innovation aims to stimulate reflection on the challenges linked to the development of social and environmental innovations and their financing through Impact Investing.