Abstract:
This paper explores Impact Investing (II) within the renewable energy sector drawing on ethical decision-making and Behaviour Reasoning Theory (BRT) to achieve an enhanced understanding of the complex ethical sensemaking process of impact investors. Addressing the ethical tensions faced by impact investors with mixed motives, this paper investigates how leaders use context-specific reasons to make sense and shape the renewable energy investment (REI) process. This study represents an initial attempt to understand the novel field of II made within the RE sector based on ethical sensemaking and BRT with a multi-stakeholder approach. Our findings show that prosocial, personal, reputational, and economic motives are the main drivers of REI, where three different modes of ethical sensemaking allowed for the construction of these motives from context-specific reasons by decision-makers in II. The research context is set in China, enabling us to shed light on the issues concerning decision-makers in face of complex situations and uncertainties within one relatively homogeneous social-economic environment. This paper utilises an abductive research approach with thematic analysis of secondary literature, in-depth interviews, and analysis of government documents and media reports to support the key findings. This paper develops three modes of ethical sensemaking –pragmatic, retrospective, and forecasting – to explain the motives of impact investors made in the RE sector. This paper contributes to the academic discourse on ethical sensemaking and BRT.