Perspectives on the role of business in social innovation

Fabien Martinez (), Patrick O'Sullivan, Mark Smith and Mark Esposito ()
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Fabien Martinez: QMUL - Queen Mary University of London
Patrick O'Sullivan: EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management
Mark Esposito: EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management

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Abstract: Purpose This article examines the conceptual construct of social innovation in business as distinct from social innovation implemented by civil society and the state. The general absence of sustained research and analysis of this phenomenon, and the dominance of grey and policy-oriented literature, mean that a broadly accepted definition of how social innovation theorises the changing role of business in society is missing. Design/methodology/approach We conducted an integrative review of the representative literature on social innovation. The analysis focused on the key arguments made about the involvement of business actors in processes of social innovation and interweaved in this study to build a logically coherent definition of what social innovation in business means for the bulk of those who write and speak about it today. The scope of the literature review was expanded by integrating insights from the extant 'business in society' and social innovation literatures, thereby adding clarity to our conceptualisation. Findings The findings indicate that social innovation is best understood as a process driven by human relations, morality and creative capacity breaking routines and path dependencies. It fundamentally relies on the socially constructed dynamics between business and social actors who carry ideas, focus their energies, mobilise competences and create new complementarities to tackle social problems. Economic gain, in this approach, is at best an outcome of social innovation, not its engine.

Keywords: Social innovation; Literature review; Business sustainability; Social progress; Shared value creation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-06-12
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02887662
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in Journal of Management Development, 2017, 36 (5), pp.681-695. ⟨10.1108/JMD-10-2016-0212⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02887662

DOI: 10.1108/JMD-10-2016-0212

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