: Laura Vivian Haidl-Schöpf
: Social Impact Investing in the Real Estate Industry
: Books on Demand
: 9783758339530
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: Betriebswirtschaft
: English
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This dissertation represents an initial exploration and offers a practical framework, along with managerial recommendations, for social impact investing within the real estate industry. The first paper contributes to the academic discourse by elucidating the understanding, boundaries, and definition of social impact investing. The second paper integrates the academic framework of a balanced scorecard with regulatory stipulations set forth by the European Union, while incorporating specific considerations relevant to real estate assets. This integration results in the development of an analytical grid tailored to assess social impact investing within the context of real estate properties. The third and concluding paper evaluates the applicability of the previously established Real Estate Social Impact Investing Analysis Grid and derives managerial insights from interviews conducted with prominent German real estate top managers and sustainability managers. Overall, this dissertation shall enable all actors in the real estate landscape to understand social impact investing and help to establish social impact investing as an integral part of daily business. In line with the sentiment expressed by the Urban Land Institute (2021, p. 12),"Now is the time to put people and places at the heart of real estate investment and development." Through collaboration and the engagement of all stakeholders, the real estate industry can significantly contribute to addressing social and environmental sustainability challenges in a goal-oriented manner. By doing so, it takes on the responsibility of creating a livable and cherished world for future generations.

Laura Haidl worked as a research assistant at the Real Estate Management Institute (REMI) at BS Universität für Wirtschaft und Recht from April 2021 until the completion of her dissertation in December 2023. Her research focus was on impact investing in the real estate industry. During her time at REMI, she contributed significantly to the Institute for Corporate Governance's (ICG) studies on social impact investing. Prior to this position, Laura worked in the Deals Tax team at PwC in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf from August 2015 to March 2021. She holds degrees from the European Business School University of Economics and Law (B.Sc.) and the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (LL.M.). Since October 1, 2023, Laura has been working as Sustainability Manager at Commerz Real in the Center of Competence Sustainable Transformation& Strategy department.

2. To Miss the Forest for the Trees: Understanding, Conceptualizing, and Defining Social Impact Investing through a Systematic Literature Review1


Abstract: Impact investments are progressively seen as an important lever for achieving societal goals. While environmental topics have increasingly been discussed and analyzed, the social aspects of impact investments have often been neglected in their definition, delimitation, and their measurements. This paper is a first step in defining the term social impact investing by conducting a systematic literature review as well as combining the derived definition with the EU social taxonomy. This analysis has concluded that while the prevalent definition of social impact investing follows the definition of impact investing, the definitions must be supplemented with the additionality criterion. Furthermore, while everybody talks about investment, the financial return aspect is mostly ignored in the academic literature. Lastly, this article shall give clarity regarding the use of over 45 related terminologies focusing on impact investing, social investments, socially responsible investing (SRI), corporate social responsibility (CSR), and environmental social governance (ESG).

Keywords: Impact Investing (II); Social Impact Investing (SII); EU social taxonomy; Systematic Literature Review.

Subject classification codes (JEL): A13; D63; M14.

2.1 Introduction


Impact investments can pursue all kinds of social and environmental goals (Busch et al., 2021; GIIN, 2023). However, most impact investments are in line with the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), as they are mostly oriented towards the world’s most urgent concerns (United Nations, 2015), which in turn are most important for a sustainable development process ranging from climate change to social betterment (Betti, Consolandi,& Eccles, 2018; Kölbel, Heeb, Paetzold,& Busch, 2020; Masson-Delmotte et al., 2018; Urban Land Institute, 2022). Nevertheless, most actors have focused their attention on environmental issues and their underlying risks (Buriez& Müller, 2022; Urban Land Institute, 2021). However, a paradigm shift towards understanding social dimensions and the key concept of social value is underway, urging the market to establish industry standards, challenge the valuation process and methods as well as encourage alignment of policy and legal considerations in order to define social impact investing uniformly (Urban Land Institute, 2022).

According to the Global Sustainable Investment Review 2018 by the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA), global sustainable investment assets totaled USD 30.682 billion in 2018 (GSIA, 2018). In 2020, global sustainable investment assets already amounted to USD 35,301 billion (GSIA, 2020), which depicts an increase of roughly 15% since 2018. The global market size of the impact investing market on the other hand is valued at USD 715 billion, corresponding to around EUR 615 billion (GIIN, 2020).

But what is behind the different terms commonly used (such as (social) impact investing, socially responsible investment (SRI), sustainable investments, etc.), how can an impact on the real economy be achieved, and how this impact can be measured, is not clearly discernible.

The social impact investing market is still a niche / emerging market that is young. At the same time, this market is highly relevant, and the market shows great growth potential. Furthermore, legal deadlines for the implementation of environmental measures for example defined in the European Union (EU) Green Deal or EU Action Plan serve as an accelerator, which are also applicable to the social aspects as respective regulations will be adopted in the future by way of the social taxonomy (European Commission, 2018, 2019). Hence, external legal but also societal, and ethical pressure is forcing companies to focus on this issue (Chiappini, 2017; REMI& ICG, 2021, 2023; Urban Land Institute, 2021).

The market growth as well as the upcoming legal requirements indicate that a better understanding of the underlying market, namely social impact investing, is of great relevance for researchers and practitioners. The