Bibliometric Review of Blended Finance and Partial Risk Guarantee: Establishing Needs and Advantages
, Tusharika Mahna 1, Sonali Jain 1, Sanjay Dhir 1,*, Neeta Rao 2, Achin Biyani 3, Himanshu Sikka 3, Rishit Yadav 3, Sidharth Dua 3 and Archish Gupta 3
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I think that the topic addressed in the paper is relevant, current, and interesting both for the academic community and the business world.
The title aligns with the theme and is representative of it. The abstract, introduction, and literature review are written in a thoughtful and balanced manner.
Regarding the introduction, as a means to improve the paper, I propose that the authors present the structure of the work.
The paper is well-structured and includes all the subdivisions that academic work should have. Here is a personal opinion: the authors could have described the data collection process, including how and where it was conducted, the databases used, and the document selection method. Following a more traditional structure, this could have been presented before the results section.
The methodology is presented clearly and objectively, and it is appropriate for achieving the objectives of bibliometric analysis. The authors have fulfilled the objectives they set out to achieve.
The conclusion is presented objectively and concisely, without being lengthy and tedious. The bibliography is extensive and up-to-date, confirming the topic's current importance.
Author Response
"Please see the attachment."
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
In it's current form, the paper suffers from a lack of structure. Much of the discussion section is not supported by the results. These details are elaborated below:
1. Section 4 needs to come before the results. The authors should review another recent publication in IJFS (e.g., Garg et al. (2023) on Fintech trends) and adopt the structure used there. Additionally, the methods and materials are not sufficiently described.
2. The introduction doesn't adequately establish the research question for this study. There appears to be a focus on partial risk guarantees but these are only one type of blended finance instrument so I'm not sure why the paper invokes blended finance at all. You should expand the search parameters or narrow the topical focus of the study to PRG. Additionally, several references appear to be missing (even for PRGs). Some of these are listed below.
See for example:
Beck, T., Klapper, L. F., & Mendoza, J. C. (2010). The typology of partial credit guarantee funds around the world. Journal of Financial Stability, 6(1), 10-25.
Farber, V., & Reichert, P. (2023). Blended Finance and the SDGs: Using the Spectrum of Capital to de-Risk Business Model Transformation. In Measuring Sustainability and CSR: From Reporting to Decision-Making (pp. 37-48). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Halland, H., Dixon, A.D., In, S.Y., Monk, A.H., & Sharma, R. (2018). Governing blended finance: An institutional investor perspective. Available at SSRN 3264922.
Pereira, J. (2017). Blended Finance: What It Is, How It Works and How It Is Used.
3. The article focuses too much on the affiliations, organizations and countries of the authors associated with the review. I think a much more interesting analysis is related to further interpretation of the keywords and content of the underlying studies. The paper seems to suggest that blended finance is a silver bullet that's only drawback is that it's not yet widely adopted. I think a more critical analysis is both warranted and required to build a complete picture of the blended finance literature.
Author Response
"Please see the attachment."
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Please refer to my reviewing report in attachment for details
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Please refer to my reviewing report in attachment for details.
Author Response
"Please see the attachment."
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
All comments have been addressed.
