Abstract
Social innovation refers to new concepts, strategies, initiatives, products, services, or processes that address social needs and change the basic routines, flow of resources and authority, and impact on the beliefs of the social system, to make a change, at both individual and systemic levels. This paper aims to identify the key factors that impact the success and continuity of social practices or actions involving entrepreneurship or social innovation. Through action research projects, four social actions were implemented: a time banking proposal for a vulnerable community, a free meal project for low-income and unemployed people, and entrepreneurship workshop for unemployed people, and an art workshop for socially vulnerable children. The results showed that the critical factors to the success and continuity of the social actions are social actors networking, the role of leadership, the necessary investments, and the precise alignment with social needs. Finally, the paper proposed some practical and theoretical guidelines for social innovation that may be adopted to create social value and promote sustainable development by integrating university and society.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to express our gratitude to all our participants that agreed to contribute to our study and for the information, time, and collaboration provided. This work is being supported by the Faculty of Serra Gaúcha (FSG), the University of Caxias do Sul (Universidade de Caxias do Sul—UCS), the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico—CNPq, scholarship PQ 303915/2019-6), and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento do Pessoal de Nível Superior—Capes).
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Ribas, F.T.T., Macke, J. (2021). University-Society Integration Through Action Research Projects. In: Leal Filho, W., Tortato, U., Frankenberger, F. (eds) Integrating Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59975-1_32
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