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How to measure the impact of social innovation initiatives?

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Abstract

Academic literature about the idea of social innovation grew sharply over the last decade, with researchers trying to define its concept and presenting several examples of successful social innovations. However, to support the development of social innovation initiatives is important to have a conceptual framework that allows evaluating its true impact. The purpose of this paper is to identify the boundary conditions for an effective set of social innovation indicators, which will help to have a more informed decision-making process. The main conclusion is that the impact of social innovations can be conceived as a set of results that manifests itself through different time periods, at different spatial scales, and must take into account the value experienced by all stakeholders involved. Thus, since a positive social innovation outcome depends on diverse factors and conditions, being most often context-dependent, it means that rather than imposing a specific set of indicators, based on a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach a measuring process procedure should be adopted to assess the impact of social innovations.

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Acknowledgements

This paper reports findings produced within the ESRC-funded project “Bringing Cambridge to Consett: university spin-off companies in the periphery” (RES-000-22-0659) along with a Research Councils UK Academic Fellowship in Territorial Governance. This paper also draws on work supported by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie action grant agreement No. 722295, the RUNIN Project. This work was also financed by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under Project PTDC/EGE-OGE/31635/2017.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ALGORITMI Research Center, University of Minho, Campus de Azurém, 4800-058, Guimarães, Portugal

    Jorge Cunha

  2. Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, Drienerlolaan 9, 7522, NP, Enschede, the Netherlands

    Paul Benneworth

  3. Agder Research, Norway, Gimlemoen 19, 4630, Kristiansand S, Norway

    Paul Benneworth

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  1. Jorge Cunha
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  2. Paul Benneworth
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Correspondence to Jorge Cunha.

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Cunha, J., Benneworth, P. How to measure the impact of social innovation initiatives?. Int Rev Public Nonprofit Mark 17, 59–75 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12208-019-00240-4

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