Social innovation: Learning from social cooperatives in the Italian context

Abstract

We contribute to the social innovation debate, integrating the social entrepreneurship and cooperative-network innovation fields, by investigating the effect of product, technological, and process innovation investments of social enterprises on social and environmental outcomes. Relying on a willingness-ability paradigm, we discuss under which circumstances social innovation unfolds. Drawing on unique survey data collected from a sample of 164 social cooperatives in Italy, we find that investments in product/service and process innovation are positively related to social innovation outcomes. Moreover, the contingent effect of proactiveness and risk-taking suggests that willingness plays a controversial effect on the relationship between innovation input and outcome. Interestingly, the contingent role of low barriers to accessing distribution channels and funding on the one hand and competitor aggressiveness on the other shows the role of ability in unfolding social innovation. Overall, these findings contribute the debate on social innovation and pave the way for future research. • The paper highlights the importance of innovation inputs on social and environmental outcomes of a social enterprise. • A willingness-ability framework helps consider levers and challenges playing as contingencies to achieve social innovation. • The paper integrates social entrepreneurship and cooperative/network innovation to advance the social innovation debate.