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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Elizabeth Alexander
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Shifts in the philosophy of the ‘state’ and a growing emphasis on the ‘Big Society’ has placed an increasing onus on a newly emerging organizational form, social enterprises, to deliver innovative solutions to ease societal issues. However, the question of how social enterprises manage the process of social innovation remains largely unexplored. Based on insights from both in-depth interviews and a quantitative empirical study of social enterprises, this research examines the role of stakeholder relationships in supporting the process of social innovation within social enterprises. We find that social enterprises are adept at utilizing their relationships with stakeholders in the ideation stage of social innovation. In contrast, they often fail to harness knowledge and expertise from their partners during the social innovation implementation phase. Consequently, we propose a social innovation-stakeholder relationship matrix that provides social enterprises in particular with insight for developing stakeholder relationships to achieve their social innovation missions.
Author(s): Phillips W, Alexander EA, Lee H
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Business Ethics
Year: 2019
Volume: 156
Issue: 2
Pages: 315-331
Print publication date: 01/05/2019
Online publication date: 23/06/2017
Acceptance date: 13/06/2017
Date deposited: 26/06/2017
ISSN (print): 0167-4544
ISSN (electronic): 1573-0697
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3608-1
DOI: 10.1007/s10551-017-3608-1
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