In the last years, sustainable finance emerged as one of the most popular research topics all over the world. Inspired by the need to reconsider the role and contribution of finance for a more sustainable development and capitalism, sustainable finance encompasses a very broad set of terms and investment approaches that lead to a blurring of its boundaries and core elements. This chapter explores research on the field of sustainable finance by using a bibliometric approach and mapping its conceptual landscape and the related sub-themes. The chapter provides a better understanding of sustainable finance to researchers, organizations, and the society by clarifying the origin, concept, and boundaries of sustainable finance, and delineating comprehensive knowledge of the tools, approaches, and instruments useful for sustainable development in the financial world.
TopIntroduction
Many studies have suggested that the subprime crisis highlighted a crisis of ethics and values that raised the demand for long-term approaches to creating sustainable development in the finance world. In this perspective, several works emphasized that traditional finance has not been able to fulfill its social purpose (Sandberg, 2018).
The concept of sustainable finance emerged from sustainability or sustainable development defined as “the provision of financial capital and risk management products and services in ways that promote or do not harm economic prosperity, the ecology and community well-being” (Strandberg, 2005, p. 6). According to academic literature, sustainable development has considered economic, environment, and social constraints on the same level rather than preference for just monetary goals (Lagoarde-Segot & Paranque, 2017). Thus, sustainable development not only reflects all the issues related to the environment, society, and governance (ESG), but also creates sustainability by balancing these three main factors (Vifell & Sonery, 2012).
Salzmann (2013) describes how environment, social justice, and corporate governance can be considered the three main central aspects of concern in assessing the sustainability of an investment. More recently, academic contributions on sustainable finance are increasingly focusing on the role of sustainable finance in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (Ziolo et al., 2021), on the challenges and opportunities emerging after the COVID-19 crisis (Caldecott, 2020; Quatrini, 2021), and on the role of regulatory policy to encourage the development of sustainable finance (Klettner et al., 2019; Ahlström & Monciardini, 2021; Okonjo, 2021). The exploration of the following themes further enriches the current debate around sustainable finance: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) (Ramadhani, 2019; Kew & Krosinsky, 2020; Weston & Nnadi, 2021), Sustainable Responsible Investments and Socially Responsible Financial Markets (Jednak, & Jednak, 2019), Impact Investing (Park, 2018), Green Bonds (Park, 2018; Carè et al., 2018; Maltais & Nykvist, 2020; Birindelli et al., 2020), and Green and Climate Finance (Dörry & Schulz, 2018; Liang & Renneboog, 2020; Migliorelli, 2021).
Although there have been many reviews before, most of them are more inclined to specific sub-themes. These reviews are often unable to summarize the development and knowledge structure of the whole field. Sustainable finance encompasses an extensive set of terms and investment approaches without a clear understanding of its boundaries and core elements. Based on this consideration, this chapter explores the stance of previous studies on sustainable finance by (i) identifying their origins and roots; and (ii) by mapping its conceptual landscape and the related sub-themes.
The structure of a scientific field can be analyzed by its research and publication activity (Ronda-Pupo, 2017). This chapter uses bibliometric tools (Castriotta, Loi, Marku, & Naitana, 2019) that, combined with a co-word analysis approach, can show the structure and central themes of a research area (Tunger & Eulerich, 2018). More in detail, a bibliometric analysis enables the identification of current trends and future research avenues (Fahimnia et al., 2015; Li, Wu, & Wu, 2017; Xu et al., 2018).