Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Going it alone won’t work! The relational imperative for social innovation in social enterprises

Phillips, Wendy; Alexander, Elizabeth; Lee, Hazel

Authors

Elizabeth Alexander

Hazel Lee



Abstract

Shifts in the philosophy of the “state” and a growing emphasis on the “Big Society” have placed an increasing onus on a newly emerging organizational form, social enterprises, to deliver innovative solutions to ease societal issues. However, the question of how social enterprises manage the process of social innovation remains largely unexplored. Based on insights from both in-depth interviews and a quantitative empirical study of social enterprises, this research examines the role of stakeholder relationships in supporting the process of social innovation within social enterprises. We find that social enterprises are adept at working with their stakeholders in the ideation stage of social innovation. In contrast, they often fail to harness knowledge and expertise from their partners during the social innovation implementation phase. Consequently, we propose a social innovation–stakeholder relationship matrix that provides social enterprises in particular with insight for developing stakeholder relationships to achieve their social innovation missions.

Citation

Phillips, W., Alexander, E., & Lee, H. (2019). Going it alone won’t work! The relational imperative for social innovation in social enterprises. Journal of Business Ethics, 156(2), 315-331. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3608-1

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 23, 2017
Online Publication Date Jun 23, 2017
Publication Date May 1, 2019
Deposit Date May 23, 2017
Publicly Available Date Oct 12, 2017
Journal Journal of Business Ethics
Print ISSN 0167-4544
Electronic ISSN 1573-0697
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 156
Issue 2
Pages 315-331
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3608-1
Keywords social innovation, social enterprises, stakeholder relationships; empirical
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/903040
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3608-1

Files







You might also like



Downloadable Citations