ABSTRACT

Social impact bonds (SIB) have become a novel and attractive policy tool to assist with service delivery to vulnerable groups. Since the first SIB in 2010 in the United Kingdom, hundreds of projects have been adopted, implemented, and continue to be developed around the world. A broad observation from current research concludes that there is a lack of consistent evidence on research foci and orientations with regard to this innovative policy tool. In the context of the Asia-Pacific region, research on SIBs is largely non-existent. Moreover, research from Asia-Pacific contexts is primarily focused on the (financial) product features of impact financing, at the expense of studying the process innovation aspect of SIBs in service delivery. This contrasts with research from European and North American SIBs, which exhibit a relatively heightened interest on issues in service delivery process and their impact on performance measurement, evidence auditing and evaluation, and accountability to service recipients versus investor returns. As policy experimentation continues with SIBs in the Asia-Pacific region, several key considerations remain vital and require future scholarly attention.

摘要

社会影响债券 (SIB) 已成为一种新颖且有吸引力的政策工具，有助于向弱势群体提供服务。自 2010 年英国第一个 SIB 以来，数百个项目已在全球范围内被采用、实施和继续开发。当前研究的广泛观察得出的结论是，缺乏关于这一创新政策工具的研究重点和方向的一致证据。在亚太地区，基本上不存在对 SIB 的研究。此外，亚太地区的研究主要集中在影响力融资的（金融）产品特征上，而忽略了研究 SIB 在服务交付中的流程创新方面。这与欧洲和北美 SIB 的研究形成鲜明对比，它们对服务交付过程中的问题及其对绩效衡量、证据审计和评估以及对服务接受者的责任与投资者回报的影响表现出相对较高的兴趣。随着亚太地区 SIBs 政策试验的继续进行，几个关键的考虑因素仍然至关重要，需要未来的学术关注。