Between Good Intentions and Enthusiastic Professors: The Missing Middle of University Social Innovation Structures in the Quadruple Helix

Transformational spaces: educators discuss map the system and supporting Canada’s emerging generation of systems thinkers

“…As post-secondaries’ third mission grows in importance, MTS may be an important vehicle, but its success is because of dedicated people. Benneworth et al (2020) talked about the missing step between “enthusiastic managers and engaged professors” (31) in social innovation programming, and perhaps MTS is part of that step if properly supported and valued across institutions. There remain significant barriers internally to achieving the kind of financial and personnel sustainability that will be crucial to long-term success and ultimately campus culture change.…”

“…Milley et al (2020) found that of the social innovation initiatives in Canada, there was “minimal emphasis on innovation, disruption or change inside universities” (p. 31), suggesting that the current state of social innovation in Canadian post-secondaries focuses disruptive questioning outwards rather than inwards. While some cross-campus collaborations are promising (Pearl and Oliver, 2020), Benneworth et al (2020)’s hypothesize that the institutional logic of universities, while open to entrepreneurship, may actually provide a barrier between those organizations and social innovation - that there is a missing step between “enthusiastic managers and engaged professors” (31). This in turn undermines universities’ social engagement more broadly.…”

“…As an example of mission mixing, four of the ten institutions represented at our digital roundtable had credit options to support students in addition to the co-curricular programming, either as an assignment in a class related to or dedicated to systems, or supported students in seeking out supportive or synergistic credit opportunities. This trend towards the co-curricular or mixed mission approach win MTS delivery speaks to the possible “missing middle” in post-secondaries’ approach to supporting social innovation as Benneworth et al (2020) identified. In the case of MTS however, it is often enthusiastic staff rather than professors as they studied.…”

“…What is or are the place (s) for social innovation in the academy? While social innovation is clearly a focus for research, as illustrated in numerous research agenda, case studies and research projects (Avelino et al , 2017; Westley et al , 2017; Tracey and Stott, 2017; Moulaert et al , 2017) and a subject for teaching, as classes and whole programs proliferate (Booponoyeng Bayuo et al , 2020; Benneworth et al , 2020), addressing the first two missions of post-secondary (education and research), social innovation remains largely present in the co-curricular spaces in Canadian post-secondaries, seeming to tie it implicitly with their third mission, service to the community. These boundaries between missions, reinforced by administrative structures, may be limiting both our understanding of social innovation’s opportunities for change, and student demands for a more well-rounded education.…”

Guest editorial

“…The role of HEIs in social innovation is a critically under-researched area, albeit one that is witnessing exponential growth. For example, in the last year we have seen papers in this area published exploring social innovation within higher education (Bellandi et al , 2021; Benneworth et al , 2020; Monteiro et al , 2021; Sormani et al , 2021; Unceta et al , 2021; Vargas-Merino, 2021). This interest in what has been termed a university’s “third mission” to support social and environmental growth and drive wider benefits to society (Cunha and Benneworth, 2013), has been juxtaposed in the literature against the increasing marketisation of higher education and the competition between HEIs (Benneworth and Cunha, 2015).…”