Publications

SIMPACT Factsheet download  

Brief outline of the project's objectives and activities.

SIMPACT Booklet download  

«Boosting SI's Ssocial and Economic Impact» summarizes SIMPACT's main findings.

November 2016

SIMPACT Newsletter #5 read newsletter  

SIMPACT's Final Conference and measuring social innovation is at the core of the fifth newsletter. For the suggested measurement framework, it is practical to depart from existing data sources ...

June 2016

SIMPACT Newsletter #4 read newsletter  

Social Innovation Business Models are at the core of the fourth newsletter. Contrary to other forms of innovation, social innovations are often characterized by a divergence in allocation of costs, use and benefit. ...

November 2015

SIMPACT Newsletter #3 read newsletter  

Find out more about the results of the comparative report on ssocial innovation across Europe as well as the second stakeholder experiment, ...

June 2015

SIMPACT Newsletter #2 read newsletter  

Take a closer look at SIMPACT's first empirical results and published social innonation business case studies and biographies, the methodology of «Social Innovation Biographies», ...

January 2015

SIMPACT Newsletter #1 read newsletter  

Take a closer look at SIMPACT's 1st policy dialogue workshop and 1st stakeholder experiment; interview with Jean-Paul Bachy, President of the Conseil régional Champagne-Ardenne ...

Volume 2017 Issue 3

The Interplay between
Technological and Social Innovation download  

Sharam ALIJANI and René WINTJES begin by discussing the difference between technological and social innovation, before proceeding further to investigate the interplay between technological innovation and social innovation. We will argue that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are used in social innovation in many ways and that more investments would be required to fully integrate technology into social innovation processes and phases. The co-evolution of technological and social innovation highlights the importance of policies in support of social innovators, innovation networks as well as technology and knowledge intensive inputs and outputs ...

Volume 2017 Issue 1

A Theoretical Framework for the
Economic Underpinnings of SI download  

Considering the specific nature of social innovations as interactive, generative and contextualised phenomena while maintaining that many practices at the micro-level can add up to patterns and regularities at the macro-level, Dieter REHFELD and Judith TERSTRIEP propose middle-range theorising as an appropriate method to theoretically underpin and substantiate theoretical advancements towards a multidisciplinary perspective on the economic dimensions of social innovation, ...

Volume 2016 Issue 3

Stimulating, Resourcing and Sustaining
Social Innovation (2) download  

Peter TOTTERDILL, Peter CRESSY and Rosemary EXTON explores the conditions under which the state either enables or constrains effective social innovation by transcending the boundaries between different actors. We argue that social innovation is closely linked to public sector innovation, particularly in relation to new modes of policy production and implementation, and to new forms of organisation within the state that challenge functional demarcations and role definitions. ...

Volume 2016 Issue 2

Ex-Ante Impact Assessment &
Value Network Analysis for SI download  

Steven DHONDT, Hardy VAN DE VEN et al. present a conceptual framework to conduct an ex-ante impact assessment for social innovation. The building blocks for an ex-ante impact assessment are goal formulation; developing the relationships between inputs, outputs and outcomes; determining the role of stakeholders to achieve the objectives; calculating the impact; and deciding on the social innovation. These building blocks are sequentially interconnected to each other. In the paper, the authors present the experience of three cases of social innovation with the framework ...

Volume 2016 Issue 1

Social Innovation Regimes
A Measurement Framework download  

Javier CASTRO SPILA, Álvaro LUNA & Alfonso UNCETA stress that there are diverse perspectives that suggest the application of indicators at different measurement levels: the individualistic approach, the regional/national approach, and the organizational approach. The present working paper promotes the notion of Social Innovation Regime (SIR) with the purpose of developing an integrated perspective of the mentioned levels through a series of social innovation indicators ...

Volume 2015 Issue 3

Stimulating, Resourcing
& Sustaining Social Innovation download  

Peter TOTTERDILL, Peter CRESSEY, Rosemary EXTON and Judith TERSTRIEP explore the conditions under which the state either enables or constrains effective social innovation by transcending the boundaries between different actors. We argue that social innovation is closely linked to public sector innovation, particularly in relation to new modes of policy production and implementation, and to new forms of organisation within the state that challenge functional de-marcations and role definitions.

Volume 2015 Issue 2 (Part II)

Social Innovation in
New Member States (Part II) download  

Based on Part I (see below) Saeed MOGHADMA SAMAN and Anna KADERABKOVA surveyed an expert panel consisting of academicians and SI stakeholders from the CEE countries (from New Member States of the EU), asking them to reflect on questions covering topics related to social capital, social innovations and welfare regime in their respective countries. The results of the survey to a large extent confirm the conclusions of the first part with regard to the context of social innovation activities in the concerned countries ...

Volume 2015 Issue 2 (Part I)

Social Innovation in
New Member States (Part I) download  

Saeed MOGHADMA SAMAN and Anna KADERABKOVA have divided the theoretical investigation of economic underpinnings of social innovation in the New Member States of the EU to two parts: micro inquiry and macro inquiry. The micro inquiry concerns social innovation process, while macro inquiry concerns broader socio-economic context in which social innovation gets realized. For sake of micro inquiry, and due to methodological advantages explained, we use Actor-Network Theory (ANT) ...

Volume 2015 Issue 1

Middle Range Theorising
Bridging the Micro and Meso-Level download  

Considering the specific nature of social innovations as interactive, generative and contextualised phenomena while maintaining that many practices at the micro-level can add up to patterns and regularities at the macro-level, Dieter REHFELD and Judich TERSTRIEP propose middle-range theorising (MRT) as an appropriate method to theoretically underpin and substantiate theoretical advancements towards a multidisciplinary perspective on the economic dimensions of social innovation ...

Volume 2016 Issue 2

Linking Social Innovation
to National Accounts download  

Thijmen VAN BREE, Marcel DE HEIDE & Steven DHONDT look at social innovation through a macro-economic lens. They explore the possibilities for integrating the economics of social innovation into National Accounts and discuss pros and cons of requirements to do so. The authors acknowledge that key to measuring the full impact of social innovation is to refer to wider non-financial impacts, including the well-being of individuals and communities, social capital and the environment. Therefore, the (macro-)economic dimensions of social innovation both in a National Accounts and a 'beyond GDP' perspective is emphasised.

Volume 2016 Issue 1

Improved Measurement of the
Economics of Social Innovation download  

Social innovation is explained as new combinations of social, economic and political capital (resources and capabilities). The value or impact of social innovation derives from the interaction between the supply and demand for social innovations. As producers and users of social innovations the stakeholders of the business, public and civic or third sector engage in interactive learning and co-creation of use value, or »value-in-context«. Based on the derived indicator requirements, René WINTJES, Nordine ES-SADKI, Rüdiger GLOTT & Ad NOTTEN propose distinct indicator sets.

Volume 2016 Issue 1

From Model to Reality download  

Mehtap AKGÜÇ and Miroslav BEBLAVÝ describe the theoretical modelling and simulation approach developed in SIMPACT to economically underpin social innovations targeting disadvantaged individuals and highlights the main features of the modelling approach. The resulting modelling approach is the outcome of continuous feedback and discussion with SIMPACT consortium members as well as a number of stakeholders representing various vulnerable groups in European societies. The key features of the simulation model discussed in this policy brief include risk attitudes to social innovation, role of enabling factors such as social trust, uncertainty in the social innovation process and bureaucratic and managerial burden constraining the scalability of social innovations. ...