Challenges to the sustainability of associative new ventures: The role of impact investments in the Colombian agricultural industry

Associative ventures in the rural sector seeks to exploit group commercial activities of small family-based productive units. There efforts are added to reach common goals that aim at increasing its sustainability. Through associativity it is possible to manage knowledge that leads to technological innovations that allow increasing productivity and, economic benefits to members. However, in order to achieve that level, there is a need for accessing to funding resources, which has been proved as difficult in nature. The latter has become one of the main obstacles for developing these initiatives since rural entrepreneurs use to exhibit a risky profile. Accordingly, impact investing takes the place of a genuine funding alternative taking into account its dual purpose (i.e. obtaining economical return and generating a positive impact on society). Impact investments are specifically designed to promote sustainable development through innovative solutions that generate added value on a permanent basis. The present research aims to establish, from an impact investing perspective, what are the main challenges to sustainability upon those ventures. An analysis with an inductive approach is proposed through semi-structured interviews with managers of three organizations: IC Foundation, Agrosolidaria and Corseda. Results obtained define the following challenges to face: education, leadership, competition within free market, associative organizational structure, fair trade, and solidarity. The importance of the study lies in the transferability of its findings to other contexts, which can contribute to higher levels of competitiveness and development.