IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/loceco/v28y2013i1p17-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social innovation: An exploration of the barriers faced by innovating organizations in the social economy

Author

Listed:
  • Dominic Chalmers

Abstract

Social and community-based organizations are increasingly viewed as wellsprings of valuable social innovations. Government policies, most notably David Cameron’s Big Society initiative, have entrenched the concept of localism across the UK, and the move towards smaller government has placed the onus on communities to creatively tackle their own problems. While antecedent research on social innovation has largely concentrated on success stories, few have stopped to consider the profound nature of this shift and the operational obstacles it may pose for small resource-constrained organizations. This article seeks to contribute to current debates on social innovation by critically reviewing extant literature and proposing a model of ‘open’ social innovation. Furthermore, it serves as a tool to stimulate further discussion around the ‘opening up’ of the social innovation process and raises some timely questions about the efficacy of localism policy measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Dominic Chalmers, 2013. "Social innovation: An exploration of the barriers faced by innovating organizations in the social economy," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 28(1), pages 17-34, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:28:y:2013:i:1:p:17-34
    DOI: 10.1177/0269094212463677
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0269094212463677
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0269094212463677?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manfred M. Fischer, 2001. "Innovation, knowledge creation and systems of innovation," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 35(2), pages 199-216.
    2. Lee, Sungjoo & Park, Gwangman & Yoon, Byungun & Park, Jinwoo, 2010. "Open innovation in SMEs--An intermediated network model," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 290-300, March.
    3. Dahlander, Linus & Gann, David M., 2010. "How open is innovation?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 699-709, July.
    4. Joachim Henkel & Eric von Hippel, 2005. "Welfare Implications of User Innovation," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 30(2_2), pages 73-87, January.
    5. Arent Greve & Janet W. Salaff, 2003. "Social Networks and Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 28(1), pages 1-22, January.
    6. G. M.P. Swann, 2009. "The Economics of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13211.
    7. Kenneth W. Koput, 1997. "A Chaotic Model of Innovative Search: Some Answers, Many Questions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 8(5), pages 528-542, October.
    8. Eric von Hippel & Ralph Katz, 2002. "Shifting Innovation to Users via Toolkits," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(7), pages 821-833, July.
    9. Eric L. Hansen, 1995. "Entrepreneurial Networks and New Organization Growth," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 19(4), pages 7-19, July.
    10. Johanna Mair & Ignasi Marti, 2006. "Social Entrepreneurship Research: A Source of Explanation, Prediction, and Delight," Post-Print hal-02311880, HAL.
    11. Geoff Mulgan, 2006. "The Process of Social Innovation," Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, MIT Press, vol. 1(2), pages 145-162, April.
    12. Peter Svensson & Lars Bengtsson, 2010. "Users' Influence in Social-service Innovations: Two Swedish Case Studies," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 190-212, October.
    13. Henkel, Joachim, 2006. "Selective revealing in open innovation processes: The case of embedded Linux," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 953-969, September.
    14. Von Hippel, Eric A. & Katz, Ralph, 2002. "Shifting Innovation to Users Via Toolkits," Working papers 4232-02, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    15. Asheim, Bjorn T. & Coenen, Lars, 2005. "Knowledge bases and regional innovation systems: Comparing Nordic clusters," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1173-1190, October.
    16. Pol, Eduardo & Ville, Simon, 2009. "Social innovation: Buzz word or enduring term?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 878-885, December.
    17. Jeffrey Goldstein & James K. Hazy & Joyce Silberstang, 2010. "A Complexity Science Model of Social Innovation in Social Enterprise," Journal of Social Entrepreneurship, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 101-125, March.
    18. Julie M. Hite & William S. Hesterly, 2001. "The evolution of firm networks: from emergence to early growth of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 275-286, March.
    19. Deborah V. Brazeal & Theodore T. Herbert, 1999. "The Genesis of Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 23(3), pages 29-46, April.
    20. Lori Rosenkopf & Atul Nerkar, 2001. "Beyond local search: boundary‐spanning, exploration, and impact in the optical disk industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 287-306, April.
    21. Alex Nicholls & Alex Murdock, 2012. "The Nature of Social Innovation," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Alex Nicholls & Alex Murdock (ed.), Social Innovation, pages 1-30, Palgrave Macmillan.
    22. Hoang, Ha & Antoncic, Bostjan, 2003. "Network-based research in entrepreneurship: A critical review," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 165-187, March.
    23. Charles Harvey & Mairi Maclean & Jillian Gordon & Eleanor Shaw, 2011. "Andrew Carnegie and the foundations of contemporary entrepreneurial philanthropy," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 425-450.
    24. M. Tina Dacin & Peter A. Dacin & Paul Tracey, 2011. "Social Entrepreneurship: A Critique and Future Directions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1203-1213, October.
    25. Helen Haugh, 2007. "Community–Led Social Venture Creation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 31(2), pages 161-182, March.
    26. Aija Leiponen & Constance E. Helfat, 2010. "Innovation objectives, knowledge sources, and the benefits of breadth," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 224-236, February.
    27. Frank Moulaert & Farid Sekia, 2003. "Territorial Innovation Models: A Critical Survey," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 289-302.
    28. Richard C. Levin & Alvin K. Klevorick & Richard R. Nelson & Sidney G. Winter, 1987. "Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 18(3, Specia), pages 783-832.
    29. Stephen P. Osborne & Celine Chew & Kate McLaughlin, 2008. "The once and future pioneers? The innovative capacity of voluntary organisations and the provision of public services: A longitudinal approach," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 51-70, January.
    30. Mair, Johanna & Martí, Ignasi, 2006. "Social entrepreneurship research: A source of explanation, prediction, and delight," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 36-44, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rob Lubberink & Vincent Blok & Johan Van Ophem & Onno Omta, 2017. "Lessons for Responsible Innovation in the Business Context: A Systematic Literature Review of Responsible, Social and Sustainable Innovation Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-31, May.
    2. Lenart-Gansiniec, Regina, 2016. "Importance Of Crowdsourcing In Social Innovations: Evidence From Poland," Journal of Central European Green Innovation, Karoly Robert University College, vol. 4(3), pages 1-12.
    3. Nadezhda Petkova, 2019. "The Role Of Innovation And Creativity As Key Factors For The Development Of Social Entrepreneurship In Bulgaria," Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Economics, SOUTH-WEST UNIVERSITY "NEOFIT RILSKI", BLAGOEVGRAD, vol. 7(2), pages 124-132.
    4. Wendy Phillips & Elizabeth A. Alexander & Hazel Lee, 2019. "Going It Alone Won’t Work! The Relational Imperative for Social Innovation in Social Enterprises," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 315-331, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Hagedoorn & Helen Haugh & Paul Robson & Kate Sugar, 2023. "Social innovation, goal orientation, and openness: insights from social enterprise hybrids," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 173-198, January.
    2. Adrián Kovács & Bart Looy & Bruno Cassiman, 2015. "Exploring the scope of open innovation: a bibliometric review of a decade of research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(3), pages 951-983, September.
    3. Barbara Bradač Hojnik & Katja Crnogaj, 2020. "Social Impact, Innovations, and Market Activity of Social Enterprises: Comparison of European Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-15, March.
    4. Zobel, Ann-Kristin & Lokshin, Boris & Hagedoorn, John, 2017. "Formal and informal appropriation mechanisms: The role of openness and innovativeness," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 44-54.
    5. James Bessen, 2010. "Communicating Technical Knowledge," Working Papers 1001, Research on Innovation.
    6. Sayem Hossain & M. Abu Saleh & Judy Drennan, 0. "A critical appraisal of the social entrepreneurship paradigm in an international setting: a proposed conceptual framework," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-22.
    7. Bhatt, Punita & Ahmad, Ali J. & Roomi, Muhammad Azam, 2016. "Social innovation with open source software: User engagement and development challenges in India," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 52, pages 28-39.
    8. Laursen, Keld & Salter, Ammon J., 2014. "The paradox of openness: Appropriability, external search and collaboration," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 867-878.
    9. Sayem Hossain & M. Abu Saleh & Judy Drennan, 2017. "A critical appraisal of the social entrepreneurship paradigm in an international setting: a proposed conceptual framework," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 347-368, June.
    10. Tânia Martins & Alexandra Braga & Vítor Braga & Marisa R. Ferreira, 2020. "The social innovation Momentum: a qualitative analysis of governance and funding processes," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 17(1), pages 97-120, March.
    11. Gasparin, Marta & Green, William & Lilley, Simon & Quinn, Martin & Saren, Mike & Schinckus, Christophe, 2021. "Business as unusual: A business model for social innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 698-709.
    12. Fursov, Konstantin & Linton, Jonathan, 2022. "Social innovation: Integrating product and user innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    13. Robin Stevens & Nathalie Moray & Johan Bruneel, 2015. "The Social and Economic Mission of Social Enterprises: Dimensions, Measurement, Validation, and Relation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(5), pages 1051-1082, September.
    14. Radziwon, Agnieszka & Bogers, Marcel, 2019. "Open innovation in SMEs: Exploring inter-organizational relationships in an ecosystem," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 573-587.
    15. Ardito, Lorenzo & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio, 2017. "Breadth of external knowledge sourcing and product innovation: The moderating role of strategic human resource practices," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 261-272.
    16. Shr-Wei Kao & Pin Luarn, 2020. "Topic Modeling Analysis of Social Enterprises: Twitter Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-20, April.
    17. Smith, Delmonize A. & Lohrke, Franz T., 2008. "Entrepreneurial network development: Trusting in the process," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 315-322, April.
    18. Etayankara Muralidharan & Saurav Pathak, 2019. "Consequences of Cultural Leadership Styles for Social Entrepreneurship: A Theoretical Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, February.
    19. Messer, Julia & Martin, Alexander, 2019. "Open Innovation in KMU: Eine empirische Analyse ausgewählter Faktoren," Flensburger Hefte zu Unternehmertum und Mittelstand 18, Jackstädt-Zentrum Flensburg.
    20. Thorsten Semrau & Arndt Werner, 2014. "How Exactly Do Network Relationships Pay Off? The Effects of Network Size and Relationship Quality on Access to Start–Up Resources," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(3), pages 501-525, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:loceco:v:28:y:2013:i:1:p:17-34. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/index.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.