Research on social innovation investigates the process by which social problems are tackled. Such ambitious efforts at change require scholars to develop ambitious research designs. We argue for research designs that center organizations as the unit of analysis and those that center ecosystems as the most useful level of analysis. After highlighting the important benefits and trade-offs associated with these design choices, we end with a few provocative questions and their appropriate research designs to motivate future research.
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Irene Henriques
York University
Irene Henriques is a Professor of Sustainability and Economics and Area Coordinator of Economics at the Schulich School of Business, York University in Toronto, and former Co-Editor of Business & Society. She is an Affiliate Research Scholar for the Rutgers Institute...
Johanna Mair
Hertie School
Johanna Mair is a Professor of Organization, Strategy and Leadership at the Hertie School. Her research focuses on how novel organizational and institutional arrangements generate economic and social development. Mair is also the Distinguished Fellow at the Stanford...
Christine M. Beckman
University of Southern California
Christine M. Beckman is the Price Family Chair in Social Innovation and Professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy, with joint appointments in the Marshall School of Business and the Department of Sociology. She is the current Editor at Administrative Science...
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