Social innovations transcend existing sectoral boundaries and emerge in welfare organisations, private sector companies, social enterprises, associations, NGOs, NPOs, etc.
To measure organisations social innovativeness, we, therefore, take a broad understanding of organisations as a basis, which allows us to uncover social innovations across different legal forms in for-profit, non-profit and other organisations.
What makes an organisation socially innovative? Based on a secondary analysis of relevant innovation surveys and building on the findings from earlier European research projects such as TEPSIE and SIMPACT, a set of indicators was developed that, in addition to the socially innovative activities of organisations, also captures their orientation towards social needs and values as well as their local embeddedness and interactions with different stakeholder groups
Organisational social innovativeness reflects the extent to which organisations implement new solutions (products, processes, business models, etc.) that contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Employing an online survey, we collect indicators in the four domains of (1) formal structures, (2) innovation activities, (3) business models and (4) governance, which depict the innovation potential, activities and outcomes but also inhibiting factors.
Our findings improve the visibility of social innovation actors and their motivations to engage in social innovations, but also provide decision-makers with important information on the social added value generated by socially innovative organisations for the region and help to formulate targeted mission-oriented innovation policy.