Abstract

Over the past decade Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) have attracted much public policy and management research interest and debate. This article draws on the Welfare Conventions Approach to explore the diversity of five SIB-financed Active Labor Market Programs in four European countries using comparative case study methods. We identify a tension between the requirement to align civic and financial interests in SIB-financed programs alongside a drive to reform public sector procurement in a more entrepreneurial direction. We suggest that the diversity of SIBs emanates from the political struggles in implementation processes stemming from a plurality of welfare conventions that actors need to align and compromise. SIBs are built within historically grown “institutional contexts” that are themselves on the move over decades of welfare state reform, and processes of marketization – and thus far from homogenous.

摘要

在过去的十年中，社会影响力债券（SIB）吸引了很多公共政策和管理研究的兴趣和争论。本文借鉴福利公约方法，利用比较案例研究方法探讨了四个欧洲国家由 SIB 资助的五个积极劳动力市场计划的多样性。我们发现，在SIB资助的项目中协调公民和经济利益的要求与朝着更具创业精神的方向改革公共部门采购的努力之间存在着紧张关系。我们认为，系统重要性机构的多样性源于实施过程中的政治斗争，而政治斗争源于参与者需要协调和妥协的多元化福利公约。系统重要性银行是在历史悠久的“制度环境”中建立的，这些“制度环境”本身也在数十年的福利国家改革中不断变化，