the social innovation process as a response to...
TRANSCRIPT
The social innovation process as a response to institutional voids: a multidimensional overview in
projects that aim to poverty reduction
Manuela Rösing Agostini Doctorate student – Unisinos (Brazil) Visiting PhD student – ULB (Belgium)
Dr. Claudia Bitencourt Associated Dean - Graduate Program in Business Administration
Unisinos (Brazil)
Round Table I: Case Studies from Brazil
UNISINOS and Jesuit universities
• Social business and Innovation – 14 MSc and 11 PhD
• Subjects: Living Labs; RBVN; BoP; NGOs; voluntary work; social business; social capital; microcredit; dynamic capabilities; institutional voids.
• Special issue on Social Innovation at RAM (editors: Diego Maconatto; Lucano Barin Cruz and Emmanuel Raufflet HEC, 2016)
• Book about Social Innovation (2017)
GESMAC –
(Competencies, learning and social business & innovation)
• Porticus Project – NEIS – Entrepreneurship and social innovation Center (Netherlands, 2014)
• Network for Business Sustainability – NBS - (USA, 2014)
• TRANSIT (ULB, 2016)
• Business Lab (Unisinos, 2016)
• DESIS – Design & Social Innovation (Italy and PPG Design, Unisinos)
• ICE – Instituto de Cidadania Empresarial (São Paulo, 2016)
Network and Partners
The concept of "institutional void” will be analysed as: when the institutional arrangements that support the social issues are absent, weak, or fail to fulfil the role expected of them. This type of institutional vacuum/failure/void could be
generated by the State or the market in different social contexts.
Issues analysed
• Institutional voids • Social innovation and transformative social innovation
The research analysed concepts and origins of the term “social innovation” in authors like Mulgan et al. (2007), Pol and Ville (2009), CRISES (2013), The
Young Foundation (2012), Tardif and Harrison (2005), among others. To this research, social
innovation is the generation of new ideas and solutions that have an impact on the solution of
social problems, involving actors and stakeholders in promoting a change in social relations.
Transformative Social Innovation, as “change in
social relations, involving new ways of doing, organizing, framing and/or knowing, which challenges, alters
and/or replaces dominant institutions/structures in a
specific social context” (TRANSIT, 2016).
Met
ho
d
Grounded Theory – preliminary results Mexican case – Yomol A’tel – context Chilón
Coffee chain
Universities Foundations Companies
Coffee Producers’ cooperative Industry and comercialization
Coffee shop
Honey cooperative Soap cooperative
Microfinance
Grounded Theory – preliminary results
Grounded Theory – preliminary results
The “nodes” of NVivo: • Culture • Challenges • Personal histories • Social innovation (main
activity and process) • Origin of the activity • Institutional voids • Context • Concept of Yomol A’tel • Actors • Scale • Value Chain • Policy • Micro-credit • Decision make
Mexican case – Yomol A’tel
The “nodes” of NVivo: • Context / Institutional voids
• Culture • Challenges • Policy
• Project / process of SI: • Concept of Yomol A’tel • Origin of the activity • Scale • Value Chain • SI - main activity and process • Micro-credit • Decision make
• Actors • Personal histories
2nd step: Theoretical framework – after the Grounded Theory
Proposition 1: Institutional voids are filled by multiple actors that have complementary objectives and which can act together in projects with a social mission.
2nd step: Propositions
Proposition 2: Institutional voids are influenced by normative, regulative and cognitive dimensions of multiple actors involved in a social initiative.
Proposition 3: Institutional voids occur in different environmental contexts, both in developing economies as in developed markets.
2nd step: Propositions
Proposition 4: Institutional voids will be influenced by political, financial, education/work, and cultural systems.
Proposition 5: Social innovation initiatives shall have at least these five dimensions: (1) Modify / transform a social need; (2) Innovative solution; (3) Implementation of social innovation; (4) Involve actors and stakeholders; (5) Effective results.
Proposition 6: Social innovation initiatives involve multiple actors, including social enterprises and social entrepreneurs, having a systemic approach to solving institutional voids in different contexts.
3rd step: Brazilian cases The Ecocitrus - Cooperativa dos Citricultores Ecológicos do Vale do Caí, works with the concepts of sustainable agriculture and cooperatives. Since 1994 Ecocitrus develops the
concepts of socially equitable agriculture, environmentally friendly and economically viable by encouraging family farming and the maintenance of families in the countryside. The
cooperative has developed a process in which the associated farmers have to manage the whole production chain of citrus, keeping the values of fair trade and solidarity economy.
3rd step: Brazilian cases
Bailique - AP
Community Protocols are internal rules created by the community. Such rules reflect their own traditional character, the manner in which the community
relates both to itself and externally, and also define certain procedures, criteria, and tools for territorial management and the use of natural
resources.
Bailique - AP
.
1. Creation of the Community
Protocol
2. Definition of the main economic activities
3. FSC certification of
açaí
4. Add value to açaí - cutting
intermediaries
5. Creation of the Family
School
Bailique - AP
3rd step: Brazilian cases
Preliminary results Regulative
“Norms and laws” Normative
“value and norms” Cognitive
“beliefs and values”
· Inconsistency of
government policies to social projects;
· Lack of government
control in the region (political, social and
legal in Brazilian cases) (military in Mexican
case)
· Inappropriate laws for social projects;
· Values (Mexican -maintenance
the importance of tseltales characteristics to achieve the
business) (Brazilian cases –
different perspective in different contexts – more business in south
and more ideological in north);
· Beliefs - interculturalism (Catholic and Maya in Mexico)
(Christian and traditional features in Brazilian case):
· Machismo
· Collective and family
· Respect mother earth / nature and forest
· Respect the authority and community leaders
· Trusts or distrust:
· Between the community and managers;
· Among the project and customers;
· Among the project and foundations, companies.
· Stereotypes (prejudice or
unfavorable perception of people of Western culture or Tsental)
(family agriculture system /
organic food / traditional communities and “normal
market”);
· Management Practices (goals following the communities
rhythm; decisions taken in assemblies);
· Identity:
· Language and indigenous roots (Mexican case)
· Traditional features to territorial management
with sustainable principles (Amazonian case)
· Organic food and solidarity economy (south
case)
· Relations of equality and community for fair labor
exploitation
· Education level (in a more
developed context the education
level is higher and influence the concepts of the project)
· Collaboration between community members and the “sister
communities” and similar projects.
Thanks a lot! Muito obrigada!
Danke!
Manuela Rösing Agostini [email protected]
Dr. Claudia Bitencourt [email protected]
Round Table I: Case Studies from Brazil