Appropriateness of Standard Accounting Tools in Measuring Social Innovation in the New Global Economy

Author(s):  
Sanja Franc ◽  
Mirjana Hladika

The global economy brings about new trends, challenges, and needs, which require new solutions. Social innovations can have a major role in satisfying unmet social needs and increasing overall well-being. Measuring social innovation is therefore an important task with the purpose of informing the stakeholders about the performance value that an innovation creates. Standard accounting tools often neglect social or environmental impact, and thus, new or adjusted methods need to be developed. The objective of this chapter is to analyze methods of measuring social innovation and discuss advantages and disadvantages of traditional measures versus new approaches with the purpose of better understanding the significance of social innovation in the global economy. The chapter consists of six parts. After the introduction follows the literature review. The third part of the chapter discusses different approaches to measuring innovations while the fourth part suggests some new approaches to measuring social innovations. The fifth part describes future research perspectives. The final part is the conclusion.

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 68-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Ratten

As technological innovations have progressed, the ability of social enterprises to find creative solutions to social problems in the global economy has increased. Social electronic enterprises (e-enterprises) contribute to the well-being of society by utilizing information and communications technology that has a financial component in addition to social and environmental objectives. Social e-entrepreneurship is an effective dynamic way that organizations can achieve social objectives that facilitate change in the international environment. More recently, innovation in information and communications technology has increased the ability of individuals to establish social e-enterprises. This paper discusses the role of technological innovations in providing opportunities for social e-enterprises to develop based on mobile online services. The influence of mobile online communities in developing social e-enterprises is investigated along with how mobile communication has encouraged individuals and organisations to be involved in social e-enterprises. The changing mobile social software communications devices that have allowed individuals to build social e-enterprises using technological innovations from the internet are stated. Recommendations for the continued development of social e-enterprises that utilize emerging technological innovations are included in the paper with suggestions for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-161
Author(s):  
Luca Raffini ◽  
Anna Reggiardo ◽  
Andrea Pirni

Abstract Social innovation should represent a step forward activation policies, promoting a new balance between economic development and social cohesion, reducing inequalities and vulnerability. The Third sector is a privileged sphere of social innovation: there are many expectations on its ability to provide innovative answers to unaddressed social needs; one area of its intervention are youth policies. In Italy, the Third sector reform established new provisions on volunteering, civil service and social entrepreneurship, which should primarily benefit the youth. It allows to explore the double face of the Third sector transformation and of the European rhetoric on social innovation. On the one side institutions are trying to recognize emerging grass-root practices which combine social involvement, professional fulfillment and political action in order to respond new societal challenges. On the other side, the market is still fundamental in practices and discourses around social innovation, that maintain many contradictions of the activation policies.


Author(s):  
Rafael Ziegler ◽  
Nadia von Jacobi

Economic space for social innovation is not bounded by markets. Further to the money-based exchange relations in markets, there is self and informal provision based on social norms such as reciprocity, community, public provision of entitlements and of public goods organized via political processes, and professional provision based on expert knowledge. Although these ideal-types blur in practice, they show the rich contours and collaborative pluralism of economic space. Fostering fair space for social innovation requires taking all these modes and their relations into account. Social innovations as messages signal to the public where a change in mode or a reconfiguration of modes is demanded. Fairness as a matter of taking the perspective of those marginalized and least advantaged, calls for evaluative scrutiny with respect to such messages: do social innovations empower beneficiaries to become agents; and do they consider their well-being as patients?


Author(s):  
Muradiye Ates

By aiming at improving social welfare and well-being, social policies, social innovation, and smart territories are closely related to each other. Local authorities are in direct contact with citizens and regional needs, which makes them an important actor in overcoming challenges ranging from housing, spare-time activities to education to improving democratic standards. There are many successful examples of social innovations, including FixMyStreet.com, participatory budgeting, and Open Government Vienna, which are supported by local governments that can contribute to the formation of smart cities and territories. By elaborating related examples from various perspectives, this chapter highlights the relation between social policy, social innovation, and smart cities.


Author(s):  
JÜRGEN HOWALDT ◽  
DMITRI DOMANSKI ◽  
CHRISTOPH KALETKA

ABSTRACT Purpose: Against the backdrop of clear paradoxes and confusion in prevailing innovation policies, the contours of a new innovation paradigm, as elaborated in this paper, are becoming visible and causing social innovation to grow in importance. Originality/gap/relevance/implications: However, innovation research is still lacking sustained and systematic analysis of social innovation, its theories, characteristics, and impacts. The purpose of this paper is to focus on a theoretically sound concept of social innovation as a precondition for an integrated theory of socio-technological innovation in which social innovation is more than an appendage of technological innovation. Key methodological aspects: The paper presents first empirical results of the global research project "SI-DRIVE: Social Innovation - Driving Force of Social Change" and introduces key findings of a global mapping of social innovation initiatives. This quantitative mapping is based upon 1.005 social innovation initiatives. Summary of key results: The mapping underlines the broad range of actors involved in the mapped initiatives and thereby confirms the need for a cross-sectoral concept of social innovation. It reveals a high diversity of social needs and societal challenges addressed by the initiatives as well as a high dependency on networks. The results also show that 90% of the initiatives are scaling. Key considerations/conclusions: Finally, on the basis of these empirical results, a recourse to Gabriel Tarde's social theory allows us to widen a perspective which was narrowed to economic and technological innovations by Schumpeter and after him by the sociology of technology, and to include social innovations in all their diversity.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sandra Delina Marin Ruiz

Engineering schools play a key role in developing students' skills to appeal to an increasingly socially responsible job market. To do so, engineering educators must teach future professionals "social innovation skills": the ability to identify a community's social needs and transform this information into innovative technical solutions. This study explored to what extent do engineering students exhibit social innovation skills in an industry-driven capstone project in the program of civil engineering at a Midwestern research-intensive institution. A qualitative case study was used on a civil engineering capstone design class where data collection included interviews, document review, and thematic analysis. The results suggest new directions for future research, such as integrating community engagement and learning the structure of the government as platforms to facilitating social innovation skill learning among engineering students. I proposed the new concept of Engineering Social Innovation Skills: complex social problem solving, integrated skills to interact with communities, creativity to address social needs, and community-driven systems thinking. "Social impact" was found as a critical element to foster social innovation skill learning. This dissertation offers insights into potential curriculum improvement for engineering capstone classes and suggests new avenues for future research and career opportunities.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marié P. Wissing

The positive psychology (PP) landscape is changing, and its initial identity is being challenged. Moving beyond the “third wave of PP,” two roads for future research and practice in well-being studies are discerned: The first is the state of the art PP trajectory that will (for the near future) continue as a scientific (sub)discipline in/next to psychology (because of its popular brand name). The second trajectory (main focus of this manuscript) links to pointers described as part of the so-called third wave of PP, which will be argued as actually being the beginning of a new domain of inter- or transdisciplinary well-being studies in its own right. It has a broader scope than the state of the art in PP, but is more delineated than in planetary well-being studies. It is in particular suitable to understand the complex nature of bio-psycho-social-ecological well-being, and to promote health and wellness in times of enormous challenges and changes. A unique cohering focus for this post-disciplinary well-being research domain is proposed. In both trajectories, future research will have to increase cognizance of metatheoretical assumptions, develop more encompassing theories to bridge the conceptual fragmentation in the field, and implement methodological reforms, while keeping context and the interwovenness of the various levels of the scientific text in mind. Opportunities are indicated to contribute to the discourse on the identity and development of scientific knowledge in mainstream positive psychology and the evolving post-disciplinary domain of well-being studies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2(75)) ◽  
pp. 101-111
Author(s):  
O.V. SADCHENKO

Topicality. Actual is the improvement of marketing technologies in the field of economics of experience in the conditions of sustainable development. Social innovations are of great importance for economic development, through the improvement of equipment and technologies, new business models to improve the quality of life of people and social infrastructure in accordance with global trends. The goal is to achieve sustainable development of society in which the satisfaction of environmental, economic and social needs is carried out in a balanced way. The current stage of development of the world economy has a tendency to transition to an information and communication society, where information is a commodity, but such a transition is possible only in conditions of sufficient provision of society with material goods. Marketing the economy of experience (impressions) is an additional human activity that relates to the market in the conditions of fierce competition and a saturated market, when its principles serve as the only possible way to ensure profitability and plus additional profitability of production, growth and development of the enterprise. Market orientation determines the main areas of economic activity and evaluates its results by the value of the final income.Thus, social innovations include new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that satisfy any social needs - from working conditions and education to the development of communities and health care, contributing to the expansion and consolidation of civil society. The concept of social innovation includes goods and services that will combine the intellectual and environmental needs of society, and this is one of the main directions of the economy of experience.An analysis of the existing experience in the field of marketing the economy of impressions gives reason to say that the problem of managing marketing experience (impressions) in promoting an environmentally balanced business and its implementation in both domestic and international markets has not been developed.Aim and tasks. The aim of the article is to determine, in the context of sustainable development, the basic directions of marketing the economy of experience by substantiating the theoretical and practical foundations of the formation of the mechanism of innovative and ecological development of society.Research results. The priority area for improving the mechanism for implementing the state economic and environmental policy is the reform of the legislative and regulatory framework for environmental management. For the effective solution of economic and environmental problems, a set of certain methods, techniques, technologies for the organization and management of industrial and economic activities is required. To manage events, it is necessary to form public opinion and mood, purposefully establish communication with various groups of the public, that is, changing the existing concept of socio-economic development can change the existing order. Sustainable socio-economic development of Ukraine is largely determined by the state of the environment and the level of use of natural resource potential. The need for a balance between the economy and the environment has led to the fact that marketing experience economics began to appear and stand out in the marketing system. Sustainable development targets are a high quality of life and a level of economic development, as well as environmental stability.The current stage of development of the global economy has a tendency to transition to the information society, where information is a commodity, but such a transition is possible only in conditions of sufficient provision of society with material goods. Thus, social innovations include new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that satisfy any social needs - from working conditions and education to the development of communities and health care, contributing to the expansion and consolidation of civil society. The concept of social innovation includes goods and services that will combine the intellectual and environmental needs of society, and this is one of the main directions of the economy of experience.Marketing experience economics in the conditions of sustainable development, that is, marketing changes in the sphere of economic and environmental relations, could become a lever for enhancing economic development. In modern theories of social development, there is a tendency to consider social innovation as economic, environmental, political, emotional, ethical innovation. This is argued by the fact that it is these structures that are the mechanisms for implementing changes that have matured in the depths of society, and without their help they simply cannot be implemented. The economics of experience is associated with the changes, so marketing approaches will reflect all the socio-economic-environmental changes in the interests of consumers and real estimates or assortment, quality and other parameters of products and services being produced and sold.Conclusion. The basis of the strategy of the economy of impressions (in particular, when developing the strategy of the “blue ocean”) is the innovation of value - this is not a competitive advantage, but what makes competition simply unnecessary due to the company reaching a whole new level. In contrast to the classical competitive approach, in order to use the strategy of innovation of value, it is not necessary to choose between low costs and high value. This strategy allows you to simultaneously create high value at low cost. The convergence of technologies, industries, markets, products, will expand the traditional boundaries of industries. In this regard, multidimensional studies of marketing systems that are part of integrated socio-ecological-economic systems, combined by information flows, are necessary. In the process of formation of market structures of the economics of experience, the task is to combine the interests of the economy, society and improve the natural environment. Reducing pollution and preserving natural resources becomes beneficial for the economy of impressions (experience, skill). The globalization of the world economy, facilitating the economic interaction between states, stimulates the growth of the economy of impressions, accelerates and increases the scale of the exchange of advanced achievements of mankind in the economic, scientific, technical and intellectual sphere, which, of course, contributes to the general progress of mankind.


Author(s):  
Sara Konrath

This article reviews the use of mobile phones in psychosocial interventions. Specifically, it reviews research studies that have used text messages (SMS) or smartphone applications (apps) to improve people's mental health, psychological well-being, or social relationships. Psychosocial interventions are emerging from the larger and more established mobile health (mHealth) literature of physical health interventions. The scientific knowledge of psychosocial interventions is currently quite limited, with only a few published large randomized control trials. Most of those are limited to North American or European participant samples. The advantages and disadvantages of mobile interventions are discussed, along with recommendations for best practices. The success of future research is dependent upon more researcher-friendly tools to implement interventions.


Author(s):  
В.Я. Мауль

В рецензии на третий выпуск межвузовского сборника научных трудов «Народники в истории России», изданного в Воронеже в 2019 году, констатируется не только формирование в советское время, но и сохранение Воронежской исторической школы народниковедения в наши дни. Обращается внимание на состав авторов, представляющих различные российские вузы. Анализируется структура сборника и содержание опубликованных в нем научных работ. Дается оценка методологии проведенных исследований. Отмечены достоинства и недостатки изучения народничества на примере статей сборника. The article presents a review of the third issue of the collection of research papers The Narodniks in Russian History, which was published in Voronezh in 2019. The article underlines that the investigation of the Narodnichestvo movement started by Voronezh historians in the Soviet period has since prospered. The article highlights that scholars of different Russian and foreign universities collaborated to create the collection. The article analyzes the structure of the collection and the content of each research paper. It assesses the methodology of research and analyzes the collection to assess the advantages and disadvantages of investigating the Narodnichestvo movement.


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