Impact investment as a new investment class

Impact investment has emerged as a socially aware response to contemporary socioeconomic challenges. The combined pursuit of investment efficiency with proactive furtherance of socially beneficial goals appears particularly relevant in an era of recurring risk aversion, capital volatility and stringency in public funding. This study sums up the early evidence of impact investment: its origins, philosophy, taxonomyand evolution. The key research dilemma addressed herein boils down to whether impact investment will transpire as a distinctive class of institutional financial management. The social arguments for its expansion are undisputable, however, to succeed in the long term impact investment will have to enhance its internal organisation and classification, improve reporting transparency and ensure lasting commitments from governments, international organisations and private contributors.