Self-funded social impact investment: an interdisciplinary analysis of the Sardex mutual credit system

Sardex is a B2B electronic complementary currency and mutual credit system. It allows private funding to be endogenously generated within a geographically limited socio-economic context, rather than injected from exogenous sources, leading to a greater level of positive social impact. Sardex promotes stable and constructive integration of market activity with democratic institutions and sociocultural values, and is hence identified with sustainable development. By drawing on different strands of monetary theory, sociology and anthropology, the paper argues that Sardex implements a form of self-funded social impact investment. This paper presents a case study based on 29 semi-structured in-depth interviews of Sardex actors over four years.