Social innovation, goal orientation, and openness: insights from social enterprise hybrids

John Hagedoorn (), Helen Haugh (), Paul Robson () and Kate Sugar ()
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John Hagedoorn: Royal Holloway University of London
Helen Haugh: University of Cambridge
Paul Robson: Royal Holloway University of London

Small Business Economics, 2023, vol. 60, issue 1, No 9, 173-198

Abstract: Abstract We empirically examine social innovation and openness through a survey of social enterprise hybrids in the United Kingdom (UK). Social innovation refers to new products, processes, and services that respond to grand challenges. Social enterprises pursue economic, social, and environmental goals but vary in their goal orientation, namely the relative importance ascribed to such goals. We first explore the relationships between commercial, social, and environmental goal orientation and social innovation performance. Next, we consider the moderating impact of openness to external knowledge and ideas on social innovation performance. Our analysis finds positive and significant relationships between commercial and social goal orientation and social innovation performance, but no relationship with environmental goal orientation. In addition, the use of external sources of knowledge and ideas positively strengthens these relationships for both commercial and social goal orientation but not for environmental goal orientation. Our results reveal some important influences on social innovation, openness, and hybrid organizing.

Keywords: Social innovation performance; Openness; Social enterprise hybrids; Social enterprise goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C12 C33 D29 L31 L39 O35 O36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11187-022-00643-4

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