Indigenous Sustainable Finance as a Research Field : A Systematic Literature Review on Indigenizing ESG, Sustainability and Indigenous Community Practices

Sustainable finance research has come into its own as an established area in the finance literature. The increased awareness of sustainability and global concern around environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, particularly among institutional investors, has catalyzed a shift towards greater research and publications in this area. Accompanying this is the emerging body of work being produced on indigenous investments and indigenous community practices. These nascent strands of literature tell a story of the shift that is taking place within the finance field. To chart this shift and create a harmonized view of these bodies of work, this paper conducts a systematic literature review of the significant nexus between sustainable investments and indigenous community practices. We present a framework for conceptualizing and characterizing the various stands of literature and in so doing make the case for Indigenous Sustainable Finance (ISF) as a distinct disciplinary field. This paper contributes a comprehensive definition for the field, presents its foundational tenets and outlines the parameters for its inquiry. ISF is distinguished from mainstream sustainable finance and other social and management sciences to constitute a legitimate, well-defined sub-field of research in its own right