Sustainable Finance as a Contested Concept: Tracing the Evolution of Five Frames Between 1998 and 2018

Sustainable finance has received increasing attention over the last years. Nonetheless, the meaning of the term remains ambiguous. This article approaches this ambiguity by understanding sustainable finance as a contested concept, whose meaning has been subject to varying interpretations by different actors. To map these interpretations, the article offers an inductive analysis of the network of actors that concern themselves with sustainable finance. Inside of this network actors offer competing interpretations of sustainable finance which can be conceptualised as frames. Using network analysis and interviews I identify five frames that are present in three periods between 1998 and 2018. Distinct communities advance a Socially Responsible Investment frame, a risks and opportunities frame, a climate finance frame, a critical frame and an integrated frame that tries to bring the different actors together. Describing the emergence of these frames, their position in the network and their relations to each other can add to our understanding of sustainable finance as it complements existing authoritative classifications and histories of the topic.