Social Innovation: Quo Vadis?

Abstract

The broad range of contributions by the authors in this publication shows clearly that a new paradigm Sustainability is emerging and that academia as well as business is setting a new course for achieving a common sustainable future. Business, Politics and NGOs are now in the process of reshaping our societies in terms of economic, political as well as academic thinking. The relations between the different sectors are changing and the linkages have to be proactively managed. This requires novel management approaches as well as a broad variety of expertise and most important a lot of respect for the mutual efforts in order to make our world more sustainable. Every new concept is a chance to find new answers but also to raise the dynamic of thinking for our future – so is the discussion about Social Innovation. Social Innovation is a concept emerging within this background. It gets a lot of attention these days and at a first glance there seems to be still many different understandings about the concept. Is it the next CSR or a new label for existing concepts?