Corporate Social Innovation in Comparison with Corporate Social Responsibility: Integration, Development or Replacement?

Paolo Popoli

doi:10.5539/ibr.v10n10p148

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide conceptual insights as to the social dimension of businesses and how it fits into the principles of strategic management of for-profit enterprise. This issue is analyzed with reference to the three paradigms of corporate social responsibility (CSR), social innovation, and corporate social innovation (CSI). Although there have been many studies and a great deal of research on these issues, the qualitative and quantitative analyses done so far have generally analyzed the three paradigms separately, while there has been no analysis of the logical links among them. After identifying CSI as the link in the chain between CSR and social innovation, this paper poses the question of what linkage exists between the two paradigms of CSI and CSR, and in particular of whether CSI integrates, develops, or replaces CSR. In terms of method, the paper is conceptually developed on the basis of the prevailing international literature and secondary data.

Highlights

Businesses are increasingly called upon to incorporate the social dimension into the business model, which is to say they have to find product and process solutions with strong social implications
As to whether it is possible to conceptualize the link between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and social innovation, we answer in the affirmative, holding that it may be seen in the context of the corporate social innovation (CSI) paradigm, which may in our opinion be considered as the “contextualization of social innovation to the activity of businesses.”
Our interest was focused first on the existing link between CSR and social innovation, and on t hat existing between CSR and CSI, the latter defined by us as the “contextualization of social innovation to businesses.”

Summary

Introduction

Businesses are increasingly called upon to incorporate the social dimension into the business model, which is to say they have to find product and process solutions with strong social implications. Social innovation is born from the goal of incentivizing every source and every possible driver of innovation that can be observed in terms of technology and the market, but from the social standpoint as well It is a paradigm involving various types of actors – government, policy makers, public services, businesses, social enterprise, not-for-profit organizations, NGOs, and so on – that can be studied from a variety perspectives, with different implications in the system of purposes of each of these players. The aim of this paper is to more deeply examine the linkages among these three paradigms, and provide a response to the two interrelated research questions below: RQ1: Does the possibility exist of conceptualizing a logical link between CSR and social innovation?. In light of these analysis objectives the paper develops as follows: first, a conceptual framework is provided that initially highlights the social dimension of businesses (paragraph 2), the paradigm of corporate social responsibility and its evolution over time (paragraph 3), and lastly the paradigm of social innovation (paragraph 4); secondly, the paper’s central theme – the relationship between the three paradigms of corporate social responsibility, social innovation, and corporate social innovation – is dealt with, providing a response to our research questions (paragraph 5); lastly, the conclusions of the work are summarized, and some indicatio ns as to possible directions for future research are provided (paragraph 6)

Social Needs and For-profit Entrepreneurship

The Traditional CSR Approach and Its Evolution

The Social Innovation Paradigm: “AMore Creative Capitalism”

Conclusion and Future Research