Networking effects on social enterprises’ innovativeness

Abstract

In the paper, the connection between networking and the innovativeness of social enterprises is explored. The research is motivated by the idea of understanding the impact of networking on the innovation of this special type of organizations that, due to its hybrid nature, has the potential to respond to today’s economic and social challenges. The research is based on a sample of 837 social enterprises from 11 European countries. The results showed that networking was one of the key features of these organizations, as more than 90% of the surveyed organizations cooperated with other organizations, but also that networking itself did not affect the innovation of social enterprises. A more detailed analysis shows the differences that the networking forms and organizational age have on innovation.

Keywords

• networking
• innovativeness
• social enterprises
• organizational age