Unlocking the black box of private impact investors

Purpose: This paper aims to empirically describe the general characteristics and the investment behavior of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) who pursue impact investing. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected from members of a global impact investor network, using an online questionnaire, a portfolio-data collection tool and semi-structured interviews. Findings: Wealthy private impact investors are largely similar in terms of their general characteristics and investment behavior, but they diverge in their interest in specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They tend to be strongly values-driven and to adopt an investment time horizon of 7+ years for their impact investments, which they expect to yield financial returns that are no different from those of traditional investments. Interestingly, these investors perceive the well-established sustainable investing strategies of exclusion, environmental, social and governance (ESG) integration and best-in-class as not having high impact-generating potential. Practical implications: Suggestions are provided about how wealthy private investors could use the findings to improve their impact investment decisions. Advice is offered to investment professionals on how to optimize impact investment products and services for this economically and societally highly relevant target group. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first scientific study to investigate the general characteristics and investment behavior of HNWIs who pursue impact investing. HNWIs have great relevance for financial markets yet they are out of reach for most researchers. As a result, they are poorly understood, and apparently also often misunderstood, which has substantial economic and social implications that this paper helps mitigate

The sustainable business model pattern taxonomy-45 patterns to support sustainability-oriented business model innovation

The literature on sustainable business models (SBMs) offers different classifications of the available kinds of SBM. Our careful reading of this literature reveals that the received classifications have developed adhoc from multiple divergent perspectives. As a consequence, the proposed classifications are only partly overlapping and difficult to reconcile, thus hampering cumulative progress. Building on this premise, we offer a synthesis and consolidation of the available knowledge about SBMs. Following the notion of patterns as problem-solution combinations, we developed, tested, and applied a new multi-method and multi-step approach centred on an expert review process that combines literature review, Delphi survey, and physical card sorting to identify and validate the currently existing SBM patterns. Ten international experts participated in this process. They classified 45 SBM patterns, assigned these patterns to 11 groups along ecological, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability and evaluated their potential to contribute to value creation. The resulting taxonomy can serve as a basis for more unified and comparable studies of SBMs and for new business model tools that can be used in various disciplines and industries to analyse and develop sustainability-oriented business models in a consistent manner. (C) 2018 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A Prodrug Approach Toward Cancer-Related Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibition

The selective inhibition of cancer-associated human carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzymes, specifically CA IX and XII, has been validated as a mechanistically novel approach toward personalized cancer management. Herein we report the design and synthesis of a panel of 24 novel glycoconjugate primary sulfonamides that bind to the extracellular catalytic domain of CA IX and XII. These compounds were synthesized from variably acylated glycopyranosyl azides and either 3- or 4-ethynyl benzene sulfonamide using Cu­(I)-catalyzed azide alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC). The CA enzyme inhibition profile for all compounds was determined, while in vitro metabolic stability, plasma stability, and plasma protein binding for a representative set of compounds was measured. Our findings demonstrate the influence of the differing acyl groups on these key biopharmaceutical properties, confirming that acyl group protected carbohydrate-based sulfonamides have potential as prodrugs for selectively targeting the extracellular cancer-associated CA enzymes