Putting Society at Heart: Socializing Innovation Concept
Putting Society at Heart: Socializing Innovation Concept

Summary/Abstract: Innovation and entrepreneurship disrupt the economy and society at large, thereby sometimes fundamentally changing activities and moving the humanity in new directions. Innovation is a process which is done with people rather than to them, creative collaboration driving it as much as the competition and the economic crisis just pushed this process much further. This is why innovation is now accelerated not just in the more familiar space of high technology, but also throughout society. The intangible structure of the social innovations represents the main distinction comparing to technical innovations. In the same time, while being different in terms of purpose and objectives, the outcomes of the two types of innovation may overlap. While business innovates mainly for return on financial investment, society must innovate for social return and positive transformation. In this respect, moving from a knowledge-based society to an innovation society has as a prerequisite the transformation of the innovation process into a comprehensive process encompassing the whole society, not just in the business or technology sector, as it was thinking before the global crisis. Thus, opening the innovation process to society represents an innovation in itself. The field of social innovation turns critical societal problems into opportunities by actively involving the community actors.

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