Doing good by going digital: A taxonomy of digital social innovation in the context of incumbents

Abstract

Digital social innovation (DSI) offers incumbents a strategic field of action to leverage the opportunities of digital technologies to address pressing societal challenges. By proposing a taxonomy and 12 clusters of incumbents’ DSI initiatives based on a sample of 296 real-world objects, we develop a unified understanding of DSI and its characteristics. This lays the foundation for further theorising on DSI from an incumbent perspective and for researchers to shape the DSI field. The taxonomy provides incumbents with an orientation to realise DSI’s rich strategic potentials throughout the DSI ideation process and in assessing DSI types.