Why are social enterprises good candidates for social innovation? Looking for personal and institutional drivers of innovation

Abstract

The last few years witnessed theoretical and practical contributions to the field of social innovation and social enterprise. However, analysis of the interplay between these two different realms is still limited. This article aims to fill some gaps in this respect. We deal with historical reconstruction of the concept of Social Enterprise and Social Innovation, and their conceptual premises. We consider the process of creation of social innovation in social enterprises. As members’ motivations, ownership rights and governance rules in social enterprises create a new relational context and new routines, which are germane to the production of social knowledge and deliberation, social innovation can be considered one of the main outcomes of this setting. Social motivations, collective action of a cooperative kind, multi‐stakeholder governance and socialization of resources, and their interplay are singled out as main drivers of innovation. Social innovation is seen as akin to novelty in social interaction, a non‐standardized and non‐standardizable outcome of the operation of this organizational form.

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“…Несмотря на распространенность данных подходов, исследователи отмечают необходимость расширения традиционных моделей для изучения предпринимательских намерений и процесса начала предпринимательской деятельности. Обращается внимание на роль целеполагания, мотивации и ценностей акторов в принятии решения о создании бизнеса (Fayolle et al, 2014;Tortia et al, 2020;Schlaegel, Koenig, 2013;Перикова и др., 2020). В частности, внимание к мотивам позволяет приблизиться к изучению связки «намерение-деятельность», поскольку конкретные причины создания проектов задают определенную траекторию их развития, направленность деятельности создателей.…”

Innovation and societal transformation – what changes when the ‘social’ comes in?

“…need to advance knowledge about how organizational conditions may affect social innovation performance (Shier, Handy, and Jennings 2019;Tortia, Degavre, and Poledrini 2020) as well as the (potential) impacts and outcomes social innovators may create (Berzin, Pitt-Catsouphes, and Gaitan-Rossi 2015; Taylor, Torugsa, and Arundel 2019) -as a goal and as a by-product in the process of innovating socially. The articles in our special issue are contributing to these emergent streams of literature.…”

Topic Modeling Analysis of Social Enterprises: Twitter Evidence

“…Both funding from the government and the environment of social institutions should be assessed and managed. Tortia, Degavre and Poledrini [27] believe that any knowledge or ideas from members of SEs driven by personal motivations or management decisions within SEs in response to social changes are a product of social innovations. Social motivations, collective actions, stakeholder governance and social resource integration are the main drivers of innovations.…”