UA School of Sociology Brown Bag Series Presents: Yi Zhao

Talk Title: "Where to Invest? The Effect of Community Social Capital on the Target Selection of Social Impact Investors"

Abstract: The rise of impact investing as a new form of social entrepreneurial financing creates an interesting yet challenging puzzle for organization theorists: how do impact investors (“resource provider”) select target companies (“resource seeker”), when the goal of such investments (“resource exchange”) is to simultaneously produce the private good of financial returns and the public good of social benefits? To answer this question, I offer a community lens in this paper. Building on existing network theories of relationship formation and neo-institutional literature on community influences, I argue that when resource exchanges are driven by the mix of financial and social goals, resource providers prefer to partner with resource seekers located in communities wealthy of social capital. This community-level inquiry differs from the previous investigation of partner selection in economic exchanges on the actor and dyadic level, and contributes to research on the formation of inter-organizational relationships, resource acquisition of hybrid organizations, and community social capital.   

Zoom link: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/99411862058

Password: impact