The co-emergence of impact investing and social impact bonds: Creating new relationships, practices, and roles

Our study focuses on the context of Spain, where the impact investing market is in a state of emergence and at the same time field actors are currently setting up a number of SIBs. We focus on the co-emergence of a new market and a new technology (in this case, a new financial arrangement) in this interstitial issue field (Zietsma, Groenewegen, Logue, & Hinings, 2017), specifically on the mechanisms that enable and shape the process of co-emergence. Our findings lead to two important contributions. First, we contribute to the literature on market emergence by showing the co-constitution of new markets and new technologies. We do so by building on both the performative role of financial arrangements (Beunza & Ferraro, 2018; Callon, 1998) and the local and situated enactment of new technologies (Orlikowski, 2000). Second, we show how the new relationships, practices, and roles that are created through this process of co-emergence can redefine our understanding of gift and capital.