Introduction to Special Edition Social Innovation: Researching, Defining and Theorizing Social Innovation

Racialized People, Women, and Social Enterprises: Politicized Economic Solidarity in Toronto

“…In feminist economics there is an understanding that the entanglement between politics and economics needs to be politicized. Definitions for "innovation" and "social enterprise" are void of any consideration of racism occurring in society and fail to explain why nonwhite people take up social enterprises (Taylor 1970;Elson and Hall 2012;Bouchard 2013;Brouard, McMurtry, and Vieta 2015;Nicholls, Simon, and Gabriel 2015;Bittencourt et al 2016; Ontario Innovation Agenda n.d.). Business professor Kunle Akingbola, in his case study of A-Way Express Courier, uses this idea of social enterprise to think about identities and defines employment social enterprise (formally known as social-purpose enterprise) as "a market-based entity founded and supported by a nonprofit organization for the purposes of economically and socially benefiting persons on the social margins who are employed in or trained through the enterprise" (2015: 52).…”

Aportes da teoria crítica da tecnologia à análise da inovação nos serviços de saúde

“…However, originally developed as a field of practice, social innovation still faces significant challenges for its theoretical improvement: it has made more progress in designing than in implementing solutions; it faces barriers to its scaling-up; it usually experiences limitations in resources and thus in results; it involves adverse working conditions for workers in the social sectors, and it suffers from the lack of incorporation of veto points and channels of support from political agents and policymakers [48][49][50] . The literature points to criticisms related to the ambiguity and fragility of its definition, to the conservatism of its results, and to the excessive influence exerted by the market and government model (it draws strength by filling gaps left by austerity policy) 51,52 .…”

Profits and purpose: Organizational tensions in social enterprises

“…(Pol & Ville, 2009;Parker, 2012;Cajaiba-Santana, 2014;Howaldt, Domanski & Kaletka, 2016). Social is a more complex concept in general, but in this context, it is related with the issues and challenges that some society faces to increase the living conditions of all their inhabitants from an inclusive perspective (Fontan, Klein & Tremblay, 2004Portales, 2015;Bitencourt et al, 2016). United Nations made an effort to define the main issues that societies should attend by 2030 through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).…”

“…Social innovation is a concept that, from an empirical and theoretical perspective, has been positioned in last decades mainly from its ability to generated new ways of social transformation (MacCallum, Moulaert, Hillier & Vicari Haddock, 2009;Cajaiba-Santana, 2014;Bitencourt, Bittencourt Marconatto, Barin-Cruz & Raufflet, 2016). The novelty of the concept and the different perspectives in its study has led it to be considered as a buzzword which introduces the emergence of new arrangements, products or services related to social transformations and satisfaction of social needs, but that does not have a general definition (Pol & Ville, 2009).…”

“…Social innovation includes the study of new organizational forms, such as social enterprises, inclusive business models, inter-sectorial alliances or hybrid business-social model (Moulaert, Martinelli, González & Swyngedouw, 2007;MacCallum et al, 2009;Murray, Caulier-Grice & Mulgan, 2010;Bitencourt et al, 2016). These novel forms represent a challenge in their design and implementation, characterized by the paradox to produce economic, social or environmental value at the same time without compromising each other (Austin, Gutierrez, Ogliastri & Reficco, 2006).…”