Managing social innovation in for-profit organizations: the case of Intesa Sanpaolo

Abstract

Purpose – Social innovations are defined as innovative products or services motivated by the goal of meeting a social need, with the opportunity to create new social relationships or collaborations. Although developing social innovations has been the primary concern of non-profit organizations so far, there are signs of an increasing involvement in this type of innovations of for-profit firms, in an attempt to accomplish their corporate social responsibility strategies. This notwithstanding, there is very limited knowledge on how for-profit organizations can develop a capability to manage social innovation projects. The purpose of this paper is to provide exploratory evidence to fill this gap. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents and discusses a case study of a firm that has been involved in social innovation for years. It is Intesa Sanpaolo, a for-profit organization that leads the Italian banking sector. Findings – The case study points to the existence of three managerial antecedents of a superior ability in social innovation: integrating CSR in its business strategy with a strong commitment from the top management; separating the activities concerned with the development of social innovations from the rest of the organization, following to the structural ambidexterity model; applying the principles of open innovation to the development of social innovations, by involving in particular non-profit organizations as a source of ideas for new social innovation projects and leveraging them to enable adoption of the new products and services. Originality/value – So far there is very limited knowledge on how for-profit organizations can develop a capability to manage social innovation projects. This paper provides exploratory evidence to fill this gap.

An examination of certain antecedents of social entrepreneurial intentions among Mexico residentes

“…That is, social vision should increase individuals' tendency towards social innovation orientation. Social innovation orientation implies the desire to be an agent of social change who creates new solutions to social problems through capabilities, products, services, processes and/or technology with social value and the possibility to develop social collaborations (Altuna et al, 2015;Nga & Shamuganathan, 2010). Thus, social innovation orientation is an essential characteristic of social entrepreneurship, because it involves the conceptualization, creation, and development of strategies to encourage social change.…”

Addressing Social Innovation in the Malaysian Knowledge Transfer Program: Gaining a Preliminary Insight

“…Specifically, social innovation includes and integrates social, economic and technological approach in order to meet the demands and pressures of new economic environment [3]. With the integration of social, economic and technological approach, there is a collective dynamic interplay that guarantees all stakeholders concerned a considerable return with regards to these three aspects [9].…”

“…In more recent policy initiatives, [11] develops a comprehensive guideline report on social innovation. This report highlights that social innovation is of great potential in addressing complex social, economic and technological problems where other innovation outcomes have been ineffective [2,9]. Furthermore, the guideline report by [11] emphasis that social innovation is the flagship program and act as a problem solver mechanism in addressing the issues of unemployment, poor education, poverty reduction and resource inefficiency that all European Union members' countries must be able to overcome by the year 2020.…”

“…As evidence, The European Union countries among others, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France, Belgium and Germany had developed various policy initiatives to stress the urgency and the importance of adopting social innovation as an innovation outcome towards their public and private organizations innovation strategy. Thus, the importance of social innovation had been addressed accordingly in the European Union 2020 policy strategy, The UK social innovation impacts investment policy 2013, The UK Big Society Capital 2012, Dortmund, Brussels position paper on workplace innovation 2012, and also European foundation for improvement of living and working condition 2012 [9]. In more recent policy initiatives, [11] develops a comprehensive guideline report on social innovation.…”

“…The contribution of social innovation is said encompasses social, economic and technological aspects [7], [8] that includes the outcomes of better living condition of people's life, better environmental condition, better education, better human development, increase in economic growth, increase employment opportunity and also contributes towards profit maximization and private needs [9]. As a result, social innovation is attracting the interest and attention of government, academia, private and community institutions worldwide [6].…”