Social Innovation: Towards a Conceptualisation

Nia Choi () and Satyajit Majumdar
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Nia Choi: Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Satyajit Majumdar: Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Chapter Chapter 2 in Technology and Innovation for Social Change, 2015, pp 7-34 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The idea of social innovation has gained increasing attention over the last several years in political, academic, and practitioner’s discourses. However, the concept lacks a clear definition and has to date different meanings. The purpose of the chapter is to theoretically investigate the concept and to propose a conceptual understanding of social innovations that aim at positive social change. To this end, the chapter reviews literature from different fields and identifies three different meanings of the concept. The understanding of social innovation as aiming at positive social change by addressing pressing social needs is discussed in more detail in the paper. A conceptual understanding is proposed which suggests that social innovations comprise three dimensions: the dimension of (1) formalisation, (2) change processes, and (3) social outcomes. The chapter’s theoretical contribution is that it advances a clearer understanding of social innovation which may be useful in guiding future research on the topic.

Keywords: Social; innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-81-322-2071-8_2

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DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-2071-8_2

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