How social innovation is shaking business foundations

Organizational Innovation and IT Governance in Emerging Economies, 2015

This chapter focuses on social innovation, a topic that the literature has been increasingly discussing in the last decade. The authors revise the many available (and, to some extent, too general) definitions as well as identify the main features that have been claimed as relevant for social innovation (e.g. , which concur in providing its definition. By doing so, they pursue the assessment of a less fuzzy definition of social innovation and make a first attempt to focus on the role that companies play in developing as well as scaling social innovations. The adopted approach exploits the literature review and is based on an in-depth analysis of the definitions of social innovation: the authors collected and catalogued them, so identifying the main dimensions of analysis. Clarifying what social innovation is and the role that companies play in social innovation initiatives can increase companies' awareness of what they (can) do with respect to social innovation, possibly taking advantage of this in terms of business objectives.

Handbook of Research on Internationalization of Entrepreneurial Innovation in the Global Economy

In this chapter, it is possible to verify how social enterprises work on social innovations, as well as practices adopted by them to generate social innovation (SI). The SI is one of the ways of creating social value via solutions that enhance sustainable social welfare, and it is predominantly disseminated by organizations with a social mission like social enterprise. To verify how social enterprises work on social innovations, as well as practices adopted by them to generate social innovation, an exploratory study was developed. For primary data collection the technique of in-depth interviews with semi-structured script was adopted. The SI has the community as an active participant in the process, with successful innovation, in many cases, dependent on the collective capacity of people. The use of this technique for managing the processes of creative generation shows that companies organize themselves to manage the SI. Likewise, benchmarking was used in all three cases, supporting the theory that social innovation is not merely the fruit of originality, but also new applications for existing knowledge.

2010

This article examines what we understand by the concept of social innovation. Historically, the emphasis has been on how to translate innovations in science and technology into commercial applications. Typically, company survival is explained in terms of an 'innovation imperative' in the pursuit of profits and competitive advantage. In contrast, social innovations are triggered by an interest in improving the well-being of people in society. Social rather than economic concerns are the main driver in the development and application of new ideas to solving problems and improving social conditions. We examine the relationship between social, business and technical dimensions and develop a provisional framework for making sense of social innovation.

Journal of Management Development, 2017

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the conceptual construct of social innovation in business as distinct from social innovation implemented by civil society and the state. The general absence of sustained research and analysis of this phenomenon, and the dominance of grey and policy-oriented literature, mean that a broadly accepted definition of how social innovation theorises the changing role of business in society is missing Design/methodology/approach An integrative review of the representative literature on social innovation was conducted. The analysis focused on the key arguments made about the involvement of business actors in processes of social innovation and interweaved in this study to build a logically coherent definition of what social innovation in business means for the bulk of those who write and speak about it today. The scope of the literature review was expanded by integrating insights from the extant “business in society” and social innovation litera...

Brazilian Business Review, 2017

Social innovation research has been increasing over the last decades in many countries and fields of study. This study understands social innovation (SI) as a way to mitigate social problems, resulting in new or improved solution for a specific community. This paper analyzes the research in the field of social innovation in the business management area, understanding its antecedents and trends. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to propose a framework to guide further research in social innovation. Through a systematic literature review, the paper offers a preliminary framework with sub-themes of interest, possible contexts and actors involved in social innovation initiatives. The antecedents showed that the SI since the first concepts presents issues related to social change and has evolved to understand the relationships between different actors, between institutions and the social context where it is inserted. The trends link the SI to areas such as institutional theory; social movements theory; power and multi-actors perspective.

2010

In the face of increasing pressure to change and adapt to the needs of highly competitive business markets, it is not unusual for management to focus on the commercial payback on technical innovations and to downplay social processes. Typically, company survival is explained in terms of an „innovation imperative‟ where new products and services are part of the dynamic business environment for securing and maintaining competitive advantage. Historically, the focus has been on how to translate innovations in science and technology into commercial applications. We contend that whilst largely downplayed, social processes have always been essential to understanding innovation and that with the growing public concern with societal well-being, there is an increasing interest in the broader elements associated with social innovation. From a selective historical examination of innovation, we examine the conceptual links and various attempts to delineate the „social‟ and „technical‟ aspects o...

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2022

The paper introduces a conceptual approach explaining how end users, user communities and /or for-profit firms provide benefits to society through new product or service development. We show that innovation may occur in different economic environments including non-market ones as well as that social innovation will not occur on its own in a purely producer for-profit environment. To explain such cases, we suggest integrating product and user innovation paradigms into the Producer-User Social Innovation (PUSI) Model that demonstrates how infrastructure and enabling technology is provided either by producer or user to introduce new market product or service. To provide face validity and illustrate the versatility of the proposed approach we consider five very different cases. These illustrative examples allowed to provide evidence that user-driven innovation is socially oriented in its nature as it implicitly addresses community or societal needs. In addition to providing insights into the nature of social innovation, the model can be utilized to help understand why social innovation may fail and how to increase the likelihood of success by engaging with appropriate for-profit producers, communities, and users. Implications to policy and practice are provided, including the opportunity for government to encourage social innovation directly and indirectly.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the process of social innovation, as well as exploring what lessons can be transferred from general business innovation theory and practice. We have conducted interviews with ten innovators in the UK who have each taken an unusual approach to a social or environmental problem and created solutions that were initially seen as peripheral and unlikely to work. The interviews were transcribed, coded and analysed to identify recurring patterns in the data. The innovations researched have diverse social benefits and outcomes, ranging from creating employment for the homeless through to designing electric sports cars. The data revealed four themes: changing the lens, building missing links, engaging a new ‘customer’ base, and leveraging peer-support. We also identified techniques to address the problems associated with each theme, including scanning the periphery, taking a reflective and systemic approach, identifying niche segments and joining or creating networks.

Technology Forecasting and Social Change, 2021

The theory of innovation, which is mainly associated with business, competitiveness, and generation of economic value, has been enriched by the emergence of new, broader, and more inclusive approaches that contemplate other types of innovation. Among these emergent types, social innovation has gained much academic attention. However, the emerging wealth of definitions and conceptualizations of social innovation generates a growing confusion about what it is and what it is not, that is because until now there are no clear limits to the concept. Therefore, our aim with this paper is to analyze the scope and boundaries of the concept of social innovation and propose what cannot be considered social innovation, which need to be improved with new approaches, this because the standard definitions of innovation are insufficient. We propose a set of necessary elements for considering a phenomenom as social innovation through content analysis of the literature. Our research is timely and relevant because it provides a conceptual framework to use the term social innovation more rigorously, both in academia and in the public and private sectors that have embraced it.

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, 2021