Abstract
Theories and concepts of social innovation are discussed in this chapter. After briefly discussing the evolution of the concept of social innovation, it is shown in the chapter that the concept, although in use since the eighteenth century, gained considerable importance in the academic literature and policymaking from the turn of the twenty-first century largely because of the financial crisis of 2008, and austerity agenda of countries in Europe. This is further corroborated by the review of research studies on social innovation. Important theories influencing social innovation are social action, social and solidarity economy, innovations, social entrepreneurship, social investment and social capital and new public management. An evolutionary perspective to the concept of social innovation is provided to show that the meaning of social innovation constantly expanded over a period of time in response to changing social needs and social relations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Research on social innovations covered diverse areas such as urbanisation (Gros-Balthazard and Talandier 2020), corporate sector (Herrera 2015; Mirvis et al. 2016), information infrastructure (Charalabidis et al. 2014; Klievink and Janssen 2014), tourism (Malek and Costa 2014), care services (Casanova et al. 2020), and greater resilience to globalisation from within (Hopeton 2020). There have also been studies analysing the impact of social innovations such as (Courtney and Powell 2020).
- 2.
For this paper, the database of Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Knowledge was used as this is considered reliable scientific database. The paper examined research papers published during the period 1966 to 2014 to identify key topics and debates relating to social innovation (For details see Păunescu 2014).
- 3.
These included profile of authors, contributing universities/institutions, university affiliation according to country, frequency of publication, publication outlets and categories of articles.
- 4.
These include theories and models used, methods employed and topic analysis.
- 5.
These institutions are the Danish Technological Institute, The Young Foundation, The Centre for Social Investment at Heidelberg University, Atlantis Consulting, the Catholic University of Portugal, and Wroclaw Research Centre EIT+.
References
Ayob, N., Teasdale, S., & Fagan, K. (2016). How social innovation ‘Came to Be’: Tracing the evolution of a contested concept. Journal of Social Policy, 45(4), 635–653. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004727941600009X.
BEPA. (2011). Empowering people, driving change: Social innovation in the European Union. Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA). European Commission: Luxembourg.
Casanova, G., Principi, A., & Lamura, G. (2020). Social innovation in long-term care: Lessons from the Italian case. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072367
Charalabidis, Y., Loukis, E., & Androutsopoulou, A. (2014). Fostering social innovation through multiple social media combinations. Information Systems Management, 31(3), 225–239. https://doi.org/10.1080/10580530.2014.923267
Courtney, P., & Powell, J. (2020). Evaluating innovation in European rural development programmes: Application of the social return on investment (SROI) method. Sustainability, 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072657.
Defourny, J., & Nyssens, M. (2013). Social innovation, social economy and social enterprise: What can the European debate tell us? In F. Moulaert, D. MacCallum, A. Mehmood, & A. Hamdouch (Eds.), The international handbook on social innovation: Collective action, social learning and transdisciplinary research (pp. 110–130). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Dunn, H. S. (2020). Creative resilience and globalization from within: Evolving constructs for analysing culture, innovation, and enterprise in the global south. Annals of the International Communication Association, 44(1), 4–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2018.1547121.
Gros-Balthazard, M., & Talandier, M. (2020). Cooperation, proximity, and social innovation: Three ingredients for industrial medium-sized towns’ renewal? Urban Science, 4(15). https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci4020015.
Heckman, J. J. (1999). Policies to foster human capital. Working Paper 7288. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge. https://www.nber.org/papers/w7288.
Henderson, H. (1993). Social innovation and citizen movements. Futures, 25(3), 322–338.
Herrera, M. E. B. (2015). Creating competitive advantage by institutionalizing corporate social innovation. Journal of Business Research, 68, 1468–1474.
Hopeton, S. D. (2020). Creative resilience and globalization from within: Evolving constructs for analysing culture, innovation, and enterprise in the global south. Annals of the International Communication Association, 44(1), 4–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2018.1547121.
Howaldt, J., Domanski, D., & Kaletka, C. (2016). Social innovation: Towards a new innovation paradigm. Mackenzie Management Review, 17(6), 20–44. Special Edition. https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-69712016/administracao.v17n6p20-44.
Jessop, B., Moulaert, F., Hulgård, L., & Hamdouch, A. (2013). Social innovation research: A new stage in innovation analysis? In F. Moulaert, D. MacCallum, A. Mehmood, & A. Hamdouch (Eds.), The international handbook on social innovation: Collective action, social learning and transdisciplinary research (pp. 110–130). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Klievink, B., & Janssen, M. (2014). Developing multi-layer information infrastructures: Advancing social innovation through public-private governance. Information Systems Management, 31(3), 240–249. https://doi.org/10.1080/10580530.2014.923268
Levesque, B. (2012). Social innovation and governance in public management systems: Limits of NPM and search for alternatives? Cahiers du Centre de recherche sur les innovations sociales (CRISES), Collection Études théoriques—Number ET1116. Retrieved August 8, 2020, from https://crises.uqam.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ET1116_GS.pdf.
Malek, A., & Costa, C. (2014). Integrating communities into tourism planning through social innovation. Tourism Planning & Development, 12(3). https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2014.951125.
Mirvis, P., Herrera, M. E. B., Googins, B., & Albareda, L. (2016). Corporate social innovation: How firms learn to innovate for the greater good. Journal of Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.073.
Moulaert, F., Mehmood, A., MacCallum, D., & Leubolt, B. (Eds.). (2017). Social innovation as trigger for transformations: The role of research. European Union: Luxembourg.
Mulgan, G., Tucker, S., Ali, R., & Sanders, B. (2007). Social innovation: What it is, why it matters and how it can be accelerated. Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. Working Paper, Oxford University.
OECD. (2011). Fostering innovation to address social challenges: Workshop proceedings. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Păunescu, C. (2014). Current trends in social innovation research: Social capital, corporate social responsibility, impact measurement. Management & Marketing Challenges for the Knowledge Society, 9(2), 105–118.
Phills, Jr., J. A., Deiglmeier, K., & Miller, D. T. (2008). Rediscovering social innovation. Stanford Social Innovation Review. Fall.
Rana, N., Weerakkody, V., Dwivedi, Y., & Piercy, N. (2014). Profiling existing research on social innovation in the public sector. Information Systems Management, 31(3), 259–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/10580530.2014.923271
Rodima-Taylor, D., Olwig, M. F., & Chhetri, N. (2011). Adaptation as innovation, innovation as adaptation: An institutional approach to climate change. Applied Geography, xxx, 1–5.
Salamon, L. M., Geller, S. L., & Mengel, K. L. (2010). Nonprofits, innovation and performance measurement: Separating fact from fiction. Communique No. 17, Centre for Civil Society Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
Santos, F. M. (2012). A positive theory of social entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Ethics., 111(3), 335–351.
Schumpeter, J. (1942). Capitalism, socialism and democracy. New York: Harper & Brothers.
SI DRIVE. (2018). Social innovation: Driving force of social change. Final Report. Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://cordis.europa.eu/docs/results/612/612870/final1-si-drive-final-report-2018.pdf.
TEPSIE. (2014). Social innovation theory and research: A guide for researchers. Deliverable 1.4 of the Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Foundations for Building Social Innovation in Europe (TEPSIE). European Commission.
TRANSIT. (2017). Transformative innovation research: What have we learned in four years of research? Transit Brief No. 6: TRANSIT. Retrieved July 27, 2020, from https://cordis.europa.eu/docs/results/613/613169/final1-transit-publishable-summary-final-report-input.pdf.
Weber, M. (1968). Economy and society. Berkeley: University of California Press (originally published in 1922).
WILCO. (2014). Social innovations for social cohesion: Transnational patterns and approaches from 20 European cities. Welfare innovations at the local level in favour of cohesion. Report was edited by Adalbert Evers, Benjamin Ewert and Taco Brandsen.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rajasekhar, D. (2020). Concept and Theories of Social Innovation. In: Rajasekhar, D., Manjula, R., Paranjothi, T. (eds) Cooperatives and Social Innovation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8880-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8880-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-8879-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-15-8880-8
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)