INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL EDITION SOCIAL INNOVATION: RESEARCHING, DEFINING AND THEORIZING SOCIAL INNOVATION

Abstract

Societal problems represent both opportunities and challenges for organiza-tions. Issues such as poverty, climate change, and inequality can be seen either as a burden or as a source of innovation. Multinational Corporations, Non-Profit Organizations (NGOs), Cooperatives and Social-Purpose Organizations have engaged in projects that can tackle some of these major societal issues. As con-sequence, a debate around social innovation has emerged. Social innovation is broadly defined as the emergence of new social, organi-zational and institutional arrangements or new products and services designed to address aspirations, to meet needs, or to bring about a solution to a social challenge. Social innovation aims to change social relations and may lead to social transformation (Centre de Recherche sur les Innovations Sociales, 2016). Although it has long existed as a field of practice, the theoretical aspects of social innovation still lag behind the practice, a situation that may keep academia and organizations from making the best of it (Nicholls, Simon, & Gabriel, 2015). More recently, centers dedicated to the study and the practice of social innovation have been created all around the world and represent now an active source of know-ledge on the topic. As an emergent field, scholars from multiple disciplines have been trying to define and theorize social innovation from different perspectives, generating a prolific, and sometimes confusing, literature on the topic. When proposing this special issue, our aim was to invite scholars to engage in this debate and connect with authors and literature internationally developed. Our intention was not to stand for one specific view on social innovation, but instead, to encourage diversity. We sought to stimulate cross-fertilization between the Brazilian context and the international advances in the field. In response to our call for papers, authors from Latin America (Mexico, Brazil), Europe (Portugal, Germany, Italy, France) and India submitted their manu-scripts. We considered that nineteen out of thirty papers received fitted the scope of the special issue and presented the minimum standard of quality required by RAM. These papers were submitted to double blinded review. When the first