if we want to measure social innovation in a survey in different villages in an area, is it better to consider Statistical population all the people in that area or just the innovators and initiatives in the area?
I think that this paper might be useful for you... McElroy, M. W. (2002). Social innovation capital. Journal of intellectual capital, 3(1), 30-39. Let me know if you need the paper and I can send it to you.
The approach to this topic on social innovation, be it qualitative, quantitative, or mixed (including the research methods associated with these) is a function of the research question or hypothesis. This query does not specify what the research question (or hypothesis) is. Creswell (2018) is a useful reference on all related matters.
Reference:
Creswell, J. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. SAGE Publications.
This question reminds me of the dual aspects of diffusion and adoption. They seem to be two sides of the same coin: innovation. But in the current context, adoption is more critical to social innovation. Something may be diffused into the population but not adopted. Brings to mind the garbage bins provided by municipal councils to encourage the adoption of recycling and waste separation practices (social innovation). The convenience of the bins did not necessarily result in a change of habits. Following from such a reasoning, the sampling should focus on the community that adopts the innovation, and not on the good-intention innovators and initiators of such a campaign. In particular, the sampling should consider the network developed among those sampled.
Article Understanding social innovation as an innovation process: Ap...
Article Exploring the Characteristics of Innovation Adoption in Soci...
Thanks for your answers. Miguel Gil , Olivier Serrat and Shian-Loong Bernard Lew
.
one of my research questions is, What is the situation of social innovation in an area or in a given community?
to make it more clear, I have two counties (villages in these counties) which I want to study this question on them. Should I first find some successful social innovation ideas in them? and study its process? or I should focus on the factors which help this community?
Dear Omid,
This is quite complex question. In our SIMRA project we developed methods to evaluate social innovation... please see here deliverable 4.2 http://www.simra-h2020.eu/index.php/deliverables/
However you might take some other approaches as well...
Best
Ivana
I would recommend reading the following article:
- Fabien Martinez, Patrick O’Sullivan, Mark Smith and Mark Esposito (2017) Perspectives on the role of business in social innovation, Journal of Management Development, vol. 36 no. 5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-10-2016-0212
Omir, I fully agree with those colleagues who pointed out that your research question is not specific enough.
Heather's suggestions are particularly relevant in my view.
As already hinted above, you need to decide if you are interested in (a) the process of a given social innovation (SI) or SIs (aims, actors, motivations and interests of the actors, the co-operation among various actors, ...), (b) the framework conditions of SI (incentives, SI policies, other policies affecting SI, obstacles, formal and informal rules, cognitive frames of actors, power structures, social networks, ...), (c) the diffusion and adoption of a given SI initiative, (d) the outcomes and impacts of a SI - or something else.
Have a look at the various results of the CrESSI project at ResearchGate.
Without having a specific research question (or a set of closely related research questions), methods (and the sample) cannot be selected in an appropriate way.
Further, there are literally hundreds of definitions of social innovation. Have you chosen one (or devised a new one)? If yes, what definition you are going to use?
Think about all the suggestions you have received before rushing into any empirical work.
good luck,
Attila
Count/measure the social innovators, their networks, their initiatives en the use of the innovations by the population and the impact.
Dear Heather Douglas & Ben Levin
& Attila HavasThanks for your replies. You all right with mentioning the way we can define the concept first.
I designed my research first with defining my concept like you said. if we consider social innovations as a solution of social need or a challenge (say, health, wastes, pollution, job, ... ) suggested by some actors (public, private, civil sectors) in a place or area.
In my second stage I want to go to an area (they are two counties which are coastal) and I want to evaluate them to find what is the situation of social innovation in this area. I was told to check them in a cluster analysis. see how many examples of social innovation I can find in each village or a county. They can be examples of public and private and civil sector examples. and then I put the villages with the same situation in the same cluster.
The reason I chose that area is because of the interest of both public and private sectors in them. there are a lot of enterprises there.
Dear Omid, of course if you want to measure the effects of a specific social innovation in a certain area you have to first measure and analyse (describe) the baseline situation: what is the situation, before the implementation or before you start with your measurement or observation of the effects of the social innovation. And I think you have to know which effects you are looking for.
Good luck with your research.
This has illustrated the situation with graphics pl chk,
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1678-69712016000600102
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Econ
- Innovation Economics
- Innovation