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Community Development and Social Impact

Community Development and Social Impact is a research topic within Finance. Science Explorer counts 12k research works in it since 1950. 10.6% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the intersection of finance and social policy through the lens of impact investing, with a focus on social impact bonds, outcomes measurement, marketization, and sustainable development. It delves into the challenges, opportunities, and ethical considerations in leveraging private finance for public goods and evaluating the impact of such investments.

  • Impact Investing
  • Social Impact Bonds
  • Finance
  • Social Finance
  • Investment
  • Policy
  • Outcomes Measurement
  • Philanthropy
  • Marketization
  • Sustainable Development
Research works
12k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.6%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+19%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
27% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Community Development and Social Impact

Which countries lead Community Development and Social Impact research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (539 and 327 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 539 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 327 works
  3. 3 Australia 195 works
  4. 4 India 183 works
  5. 5 South Africa 148 works
  6. 6 Canada 130 works
  7. 7 Italy 124 works
  8. 8 Indonesia 114 works
  9. 9 China 109 works
  10. 10 France 101 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 27.3%United Kingdom: 16.6%Australia: 9.9%India: 9.3%6 others listed: 36.9%27%largest
United States539 · 27.3%United Kingdom327 · 16.6%Australia195 · 9.9%India183 · 9.3%6 others listed726 · 36.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Community Development and Social Impact research?

By volume in 2022-now, Copenhagen Business School publishes the most Community Development and Social Impact research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and University of Johannesburg.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Copenhagen Business SchoolDenmark 19 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 17 works
  3. 3 University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 17 works
  4. 4 University of South AfricaSouth Africa 14 works
  5. 5 Florida Atlantic UniversityUnited States 13 works
  6. 6 University of KwaZulu-NatalSouth Africa 12 works
  7. 7 University of the WitwatersrandSouth Africa 12 works
  8. 8 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 12 works
  9. 9 Stevens Institute of TechnologyUnited States 12 works
  10. 10 King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 12 works

Who are the leading researchers in Community Development and Social Impact?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Community Development and Social Impact include David F. Larcker, F. Stuart Chapin and Carl Folke.

  1. 1 David F. Larcker United States 197k citations
  2. 2 F. Stuart Chapin United States 185k citations
  3. 3 Carl Folke Sweden 182k citations
  4. 4 Michael E. Porter United States 165k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Community Development and Social Impact?

The most cited paper in Community Development and Social Impact is "Social and Commercial Entrepreneurship: Same, Different, or Both?" (James E. Austin, Howard H. Stevenson, Jane Wei–Skillern, 2006), with 3,390 citations. Next come "Reinventing government: how the entrepreneurial spirit is transforming the public sector" (3,340) and "A typology of social entrepreneurs: Motives, search processes and ethical challenges" (2,784).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Social and Commercial Entrepreneurship: Same, Different, or Both? James E. Austin, Howard H. Stevenson, Jane Wei–Skillern · Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice Open access 2006 3,390
2 Reinventing government: how the entrepreneurial spirit is transforming the public sector Tania Margarete Mezzomo Kelnert, Claudete de Castro Silva · Revista de Administração de Empresas Open access Dec 1993 3,340
3 A typology of social entrepreneurs: Motives, search processes and ethical challenges Shaker A. Zahra, Eric R. Gedajlovic, Donald O. Neubaum et al. · Journal of Business Venturing Open access 24 Dec 2008 2,784
4 The structure and governance of venture-capital organizations William A. Sahlman · Journal of Financial Economics Oct 1990 2,706
5 Who's in and why? A typology of stakeholder analysis methods for natural resource management Mark S. Reed, Anil R. Graves, Norman Dandy et al. · Journal of Environmental Management 22 Feb 2009 2,691
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Community Development and Social Impact research done?

The largest centres of Community Development and Social Impact research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Melbourne (Australia), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Washington D.C. (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Durban.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 82 works
  2. 2 MelbourneAustralia 37 works
  3. 3 JohannesburgSouth Africa 32 works
  4. 4 Washington D.C.United States 32 works
  5. 5 SydneyAustralia 31 works
  6. 6 PretoriaSouth Africa 29 works
  7. 7 RomeItaly 27 works
  8. 8 New YorkUnited States 27 works
  9. 9 ParisFrance 26 works
  10. 10 CopenhagenDenmark 24 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. DurbanZA · 21.4 works12×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Community Development and Social Impact than the world average.

See Community Development and Social Impact on the map

Where is the best place to study Community Development and Social Impact?

Among universities, judged by research, Copenhagen Business School, University of Johannesburg and University of the Witwatersrand score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 16.3%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of the Wi…Copenhagen Business …King's College LondonUniversity of Johann…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Copenhagen Business SchoolDenmark 67.512.9%41.5×19 +45.3%
2University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 58.86.1%9.8×17 +82.2%
3University of the WitwatersrandSouth Africa 53.415.6%10.0×12 +20.4%
4King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 52.811.6%4.8×12 +108.2%
5Erasmus University RotterdamNetherlands 48.633.5%5.8×8 -11.9%
6University College LondonUnited Kingdom 47.844.2%1.8×8 -20.4%
7University of South AfricaSouth Africa 46.47.0%11.2×14 +51.7%
8University of ZambiaZambia 46.31.1%27.7×11 +210.4%
9Stellenbosch UniversitySouth Africa 46.011.6%10.2×11 +20.3%
10University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 45.219.4%3.0×12 -43.7%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Community Development and Social Impact, country by country

Is Community Development and Social Impact research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 19% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Community Development and Social Impact.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Community Development and Social Impact as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.014% in 2024.

still counting0.0050%0.010%0.015%Community Development and Social Impact0.014% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Community Development and Social Impact over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Community Development and Social Impact10.6% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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