What makes regional contexts socially innovative?
From previous research across the social innovation space, innovation ecosystems and (social) entrepreneurship we derive three core areas:
- the awareness of the need to act on social challenges,
- the intention to act on those challenges,
- the ability, that is the capacity to act on those challenges.
We measure these three dimensions based on a tailored set of indicators that builds on a wide variety of previous surveys. What we get as a result is the potential of regions to generate social innovation because we capture perceptions, strategies and available resources, which are necessary for it.
Our insights do not only enhance our understanding of ecosystem factors that enable social innovation, but also provide information to decision makers on how to nurture and govern social innovation more effectively.