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Our latest ministudy “Society-Driven Innovation” just went online at the official INNO-GRIPS website. This study reviews existing definitions and understandings of Society-Driven Innovation (SDI), relate these to existing and previous policy practice, and assess the effectiveness of the concept in innovation policy in a provisional manner. It also seeks, with the help of academic and policy literature, to assess if and how such SDI policy could work in the future, identifying the scope of the policy and the limits of its use. Finally, it aims to identify whether there are practical steps that could make the concept more effective; including a discussion of the identity of key actors involved in the formulation of the policy and its implementation, and how such implementation would be achieved.

Download the full report here.

Innovation Zen blog, owned by Daniel Scocco, has a clear explanation about user-driven innovation. According to the blog, there are four approaches to implement user-driven innovation, i.e. (i) personas, (ii) ethnography, (iii) fan bases and (iv) participatory design. There is also a link to a briefing by Innovaro on the topic.

Top five of Google-Scholar search on “Social Innovation” points to these:

1. The Process of Social Innovation (Schopenhauer, 2006) published by Innovations journal at MIT. http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/itgg.2006.1.2.145 – but cannot be downloaded because it is not free .. :-(
2. Contradiction and Reflexivity in Social Innovation – A Case Study from the De-Institutionalization Movement (Vitale, 2006), published by European Urban and Regional Studies. It is a case study about health service in Milan. The abstract says:
   The paper focuses on organisational processes that are capable of increasing reflexivity in dynamics of social innovation. The aim is not so much to demonstrate that a particular organizational formula could be a key variable but to stress the importance of looking at organising processes and at the kind of resources that shape and sustain them. It looks at a case of ’social entrepreneurship’ in Milan which contributes to the transformation of a large, closed psychiatric hospital into a more open and therapeutic environment for mental health services users, as well as for ordinary citizens of the whole metropolitan area. The paper shows that this radical innovation is deeply rooted in a broader social movement and that it is encouraged by a strategy of combining work and care to sustain the capabilities of disadvantages.
   The full text has been downloaded and saved in S:\ drive
3. Framework to study the social innovation networks (Taatila, et al., 2006) published in European Journal of Innovation Management, 9 (3), 312-326. The abstract reads:
   Purpose: The importance of innovations in business management is a widely accepted hypothesis. Lately the research on innovation has widened to include consideration of the impact of social networks on the innovation. This paper aims to contribute to research on this approach by suggesting a framework for studying the social aspects of economic innovations. Design/methodology/approach: The paper discusses economic innovation as a product of organizational competencies, highlighting the importance of social network. Findings: This paper has three goals: we clarify the concept of economic innovation, we present the essential questions for studying the economic innovation process, and we present a proposal for an empirical approach and address problems in collecting data about economic innovations. Originality/value: The paper opens a new, socio-psychological approach to studying the innovation processes. It proposes a holistic approach to the phenomenon by combining these with the material aspects of an organization. The paper provides a scientific framework for a new research program.
   The paper’s price is £13.11+VAT, Athens cannot retrieve it for free. Hence not yet downloaded
4. Participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre: Social innovation and the dialectical relationship of state and civil society (Novy and Leubolt, 2005) published in Urban Studies, 42 (11), 2023 – 2036. The abstract is as follows:
   This article focuses on the identification and role of social innovation in urban development. The aim is to further the understanding of the contradictory relationship between state and civil society, using a thorough analysis of the process of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, the capital city of Rio Grande do Sul—the most southern state of Brazil. The first section spells out four different concepts of the relationship between state and civil society and their implications for social innovation. In the second section, these popular movements are shown to be embedded in the historically rooted structure of patrimonialism and capitalism in Brazil. The third section provides an historical analysis of Brazilian popular movements which represent new key actors in civil society. The fourth section offers a detailed description of the process of the participatory budget. In the final section, conclusions are drawn about social innovation in local politics, focusing on the empowering experiments with new public and democratic forms of the local state accessible to civil society and its interests.
   The full text has been downloaded and saved in S:\ drive
5. Social Innovation: Ten Cases From Benjamin Franklin (Mumford, 2002) published in Creativity Research Journal, 14(2), 253–266. The abstract says:
   Students of creativity have examined innovation in the arts, sciences, and engineering. Social innovation, the generation and implementation of new ideas about social relationships and social organization, has received less attention. This effort uses a case study approach, drawing from the historic record provided by Benjamin Franklin, to formulate some initial hypotheses about the strategies and tactics used to generate and implement social innovations. It was found that Franklin identified problems based on practical need, analyzed causes carefully, generated contextually appropriate low-cost implementation strategies, and built the support needed for demonstration projects. The implications of these strategies and tactics for innovation in modern organizations are discussed.
   The full text has been downloaded and saved in S:\ drive

If you have anything in mind, or know other interesting reading, please share here.

This mini study is proposed by Chirstope Guichard. There are some main issues here:

• Which mega-trends are underlying this concept?
• What are the transmission mechanisms between society needs and innovation?
• What sort of public intervention is required?

If you have anything in mind, please share here.