Who and What is Driving Research in Social Impact Bonds? A Review

Abstract - Social impact bonds (SIBs) are emerging worldwide as an interesting solution for the most urgent societal issues. Despite the growing interest of researchers, investors, policymakers, and practitioners, this research field is still in the experimental phase, and very limited research is available, especially regarding the critical factors that emerged and currently enable the development of the SIBs market. Therefore, this research study will provide a comprehensive review of the recent advances in the SIBs landscape. The study uses key bibliometric analysis approaches - science mapping and performance analysis - to summarize the conceptual framework, status quo, and development trends of social impact bonds. The science mapping approach depicts five main streams of SIBs. Concurrently, the performance analysis approach explicates the leading academic authors, institutions, journals, and countries within these streams. Finally, the study also proposed a list of research questions in the SIBs research field to which academics and practitioners should channel their attention