How social innovation projects are managed? Answers from a literature review

Abstract

Social innovations (SI) are solutions which simultaneously meet a social need and lead to new or improved society capabilities. Although SI have been one alternative to modern societies challenges, little evidence is found on how this process occurs, including methods and tools. This research analyzes the state of art in the academic research on the development of SI projects through a systematic literature mapping related to the development of SI projects. Main findings are that SI development processes - from ideation to implementation and scalability - are not completely described, little detailed information exists about the use of methods and tools, lack of implementation results, and very limited knowledge can be found on how organizations develop capabilities to manage SI projects. This paper brings to the SI research community a landscape of approaches already used in SI projects management, giving ground to a research agenda in the field.

Keywords

• Social innovation
• social innovation development