Abstract
The objective of this study is to investigate innovation and business performance determinants of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) located in the Adriatic region that introduced social innovation and to compare these SMEs with SMEs that did not introduce social innovation or did not innovate at all. This research is a part of wider research on innovation in the Adriatic Region conducted as part of the EU-funded project PACINNO. The results show that social innovators perceive their business performance to be higher than their competitors and are exporting significantly more than other firms. This study contributes to the under-researched area of social innovation in the Adriatic Region with quantitative empirical results. In addition, the results can serve as guidelines for policy makers and other stakeholders, particularly in the field of social innovation.
Highlights
Empirical research on social innovation and social entrepreneurship is still in its early phase, with case studies holding a dominant position among the applied research methods (Alvord, 2004; Evers, Ewert, & Brandsen, 2014; Seelos & Mair, 2005; Spear, 2006)
The first research question was aimed at analysing the potential relation between service small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and the introduction of social innovation
We assume that socially innovative firms will more frequently be exporters than firms that do not implement social innovations
Summary
Empirical research on social innovation and social entrepreneurship is still in its early phase, with case studies holding a dominant position among the applied research methods (Alvord, 2004; Evers, Ewert, & Brandsen, 2014; Seelos & Mair, 2005; Spear, 2006) This is explained by the absence of consensus among authors regarding the definition and scope of these concepts and by the existence of the problem of measurement of the performance of social organisations, which has been emphasised in literature review papers on the subject (Dart, Clow, & Armstrong, 2010; Short, Moss, & Lumpkin, 2009; Sullivan Mort, Weerawardena, & Carnegie, 2003). Despite the growing relevance of this concept, it remains unclear to what extent social enterprises differ from non-social enterprises with respect to their characteristics and business performance
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