Introduction: Unsolved Systemic Problems
Many social problems in emerging economies and developing countries remain unsolved. In part, this situation is caused by âolder problemsâ such as insecure job markets, insufficient tax bases, weak welfare systems, extreme wealth distribution inequality, endemic corruption, structural poverty, poorly performing education systems, institutionalised racism, brutal gender inequality, and epidemic violence towards women, children and minorities. We, thus, summarise these âolder problemsâ in three points: the lingering pervasiveness of predatory capitalism, the overarching focus of societal elites on maintaining their power bases, and the soft-spoken mind and life path control of the masses by development-hostile religious institutions.
In part, this situation also results from ânewer problemsâ such as climate crisis, overpopulation, pandemics, massive refugee and migrant flows, the legitimacy crisis of democracies, and the rise ofinfodemics. We then summarise these ânewer problemsâ in three additional points: an existential crisis as humanity faces planetary boundaries, an epistemological crisis as snippets of pre-packaged and moderated infotainment increasingly win ground over deep learning and genuine knowledge and an epidemic of naivety as communities of people live their lives and form their opinions based on whatever post-truth leaders, propagandists, internet trolls, âBig Techâ algorithms, celebrities and anyone-somehow-slightly-known-from-a-screen feed them
The need for short-term improvements and long-term systemic solutions is thereby vast. This book contributes to generate dialogues and capture practices focused on such improvements and solutions, by presenting a range of new ventures and concepts, models and theoretical constructs from cases in emerging economies and developing countries in the Americas and South Asia. We focus specifically on the scholarly domains of social innovation, sustainable innovation and entrepreneurial resourcefulness.
Context: New Ventures Emerging
The aforementioned âolder problemsâ of emerging economies and developing countries are often structural and discursive residuals of having been colonised or dominated in other ways, while the ânewer problemsâ are global in nature but hits emerging economies and developing countries disproportionally hard because of weaker political institutions and less economic power relative to established economies and developed countries. This double burden â to lose out both historically and contemporary, owing to two temporalities of the same reason (concretely colonised/dominated historically; residuals of being colonised/dominated contemporary) â is a challenge for emerging economies and developing countries. An upside of this matter is the entrepreneurial insight that âthe harder the challenge, the more innovative the solutionsâ. Not necessarily because of more resources or smarter people, but out of vast needs and sheer necessity. This upside of the matter is, we argue, novel and inspiring, as there is no shortage of âmisery descriptionsâ or extensive analyses of all the problems in and with emerging economies and developing countries. With this book, we instead focus on productive and constructive tendencies, trends and practices coming from emerging economies and developing countries in the domain of social innovation.
The key message and main use of this book is that emerging economies and developing countries increasingly are breeding grounds for alternative types of innovations, ventures and entrepreneurial processes that established economies and developed countries have less of, as they do not share/can relate to the contextual experiences of emerging economies and developing countries. This âhomemade-nessâ is important, given the long history of imported/inflicted knowledge, innovation-as-imitation rather than innovation-as-novelty, low self-esteem and flickering self-confidence that historically characterise innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging economies and developing countries. This is important, because innovators and entrepreneurs â who arise from their geographical contexts, operating within them, on terms defined by them and their contexts â both reflect the contexts having formed and informed them and aim to transgress the boundaries that such contexts inevitably uphold. This complex situation â and the capacities to deal with it constructively â makes these innovators and entrepreneurs legitimate, embedded and inspiring as others experience first-hand how they are able to improve life for themselves and their loved ones, and contribute to changing constraining attitudes, mindsets, attributes and living conditions in their home contexts. And that holds a promise.
Roots: What We Know
Social innovation is not a new phenomenon but has recently acquired increased importance as a theoretical perspective, a relevant research field and an important practice (taken together; âthe domain of social innovationâ) (Edwards-Schachter & Wallace, 2017; Silveira & Zilver, 2017; Schot & Steinmueller, 2018). Creative approaches and initiatives in the domain of social innovation are nowadays often developed by entrepreneurial new ventures and progressive organisations in order to solve concrete problems that people have, foster social change in everyday life, improve sustainability and restore dignity in the lives of people and the social fabric overall.
Social innovation as an empirical phenomenon structurally arose during the early and mid-phases of the industrial revolution, when large numbers of people relocated to growing and booming cities. States, companies and entrepreneurs were by then a large part of the problems (causing/increasing social problems) rather than part of the solutions (creating/pushing for social innovations). Instead, it was religious communities and civil society that identified, conceptualised, communicated, anchored, financed and delivered social innovation services and solutions on a (for the times) impressive scale and scope and as responses to vast social needs in (mainly) crowded, dirty and dangerous cities (Mulgan, 2006). Conceptually, the ideas behind social innovation were first developed by Lester F. Ward in sociology in the early 20th century and then further developed during the post-Second World War era (McGowan et al., 2019). In organisation and management studies, Drucker (1987) was probably the first to address social innovation as structural improvements responding to social problems that raise peopleâs welfare. After that, Kanter (1999) refers to businesses such as banks that address social needs and thereby expand their customer base. This approach was later referred to as the bottom of the pyramid markets (Prahalad, 2002; Prahalad & Hammond, 2012; Hall et al., 2012, Onsongo, 2019).
Nowadays social innovation is described in terms of individuals, groups and communities building an array of organisations addressing social and societal problems, disseminating solutions and triggering systemic change (Mulgan, 2006; McGowan & Westley, 2015; Tracey & Stott, 2017; Moulaert et al., 2013). Social innovation is also related to processes cultivating inclusion (Pansera & Owner, 2018; Lindberg, 2018; Gawell et al., 2020), shaping hybridity (Vassallo et al., 2019) and triggering institutional change (Venugopal and Viswanathan, 2019).
However, it is only until recently that social innovation has gained increased attention as an interdisciplinary phenomenon and as a research area in relation to new ventures (e.g. Perrin et al., 2010; Bhowmick, 2011; George et al., 2012; Johannisson, 2016; Van Wijk et al., 2018), even if experimental approaches (close-to-heart in new venturing) were highlighted earlier (Hazel & Onaga, 2003). Finally, some key areas to which social innovation topically is related are social entrepreneurship (Dorado, 2006), sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainable innovation (Ratten, Ramfrez-Pasillas & Lundberg, 2019), service innovation (Gallouj et al., 2018), open innovation (Bhatt et al., 2016), corporate social venturing (Ramfrez-Pasillas & Lundberg, 2019), inclusive businesses (e.g. Phills et al., 2008; Cajaiba-Santana, 2014), institutional voids (Van der Have & Rubalcaba, 2016) and change (Khavul & Bruton, 2013).
Practically, social innovation is about individual and collaborative entrepreneurs, innovators and their stakeholders, and how they gestate, design, negotiate, enact and execute novel solutions to social problems. Primarily, they often target their own geographical contexts (except digital business and alike, of course). Secondarily, institutions and major companies often want to scale up what works to similar contexts, thereby increasing the impact of the social innovation. When it works, social innovators indeed are catalysts for change and transformation of social problems and thereby important generators of social value (âsocial value creationâ, Sinkovics et al., 2015). However, as with all âdoing-good-areasâ, the domain of social innovation has its share of wannabes, luck seekers, opportunists, charlatans, calculating posers, naĂŻve do-gooders and uninformed but well-intend-ing evangelists who do quite some harm in the name of the good or The God. Watch out for the latter and align with the former, to improve our chances of meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Part 1: Social Innovation in Emerging Economies and Developing Countries
Part 1 â Social Innovation in Emerging Economies and Developing Countries â presents the domain of social innovation in two more contributions beside this chapter. Riccardo Tipaldi, Rosalia Santulli and Carmen Gallucci shed light on the complex relation that the social innovation domain has to a key resource â money â (chapter 2). The chapter explains how social innovation can rely on development impact bonds (DIBs), which correspond to social finances investing in social and environmental projects that deal with poverty, social inequalities and human rights. DIBs bring together governments, investors and social entrepreneurs in addressing sustainability challenges in emerging countries and developing countries.
JosĂ© Manuel Saiz-Ălvarez, Delia Lizette Huezo-Ponce and JestĂșs Manuel Palma-Ruiz review literature on and models for entrepreneurial eco-systems and social innovation, which is connected to a corporate logic (chapter 3). These authors propose the idea that entrepreneurial eco-systems support corporate social innovation. Corporate social innovation/venturing is a key concept and practice that many countries, companies and family firms are struggling to set up in productive ways (RamĂrez-Pasillas & Lundberg, 2019).
These chapters introduce social innovation of ventures in emerging economies and developing countries as a relevant concept and a theoretical field. The chapters create conceptual openings for studying social innovation as a set of systemic solutions changing the way that we work (from individual actions to collective joint actions), to the way we relate (from a public responsibility to a collective responsibility), to address societal problems and advocate sustainability across geographical contexts.
