Measure the capacity of social innovation in complex organizations of the third sector

Abstract

Social innovation is an issue that in recent decades has acquired growing interest both from the academic world and from social actors who pay attention to meeting social needs and demands. However, social innovation raises problems in the construction of its theoretical corpus (in relation to foundations of a conceptual and methodological nature) that translates into difficulties of a praxeological nature. Contributing to this foundation is a necessity of the first order to advance in the construction of a coherent agenda in the field of social innovation. It is especially urgent to address deficits identified in three foci: a) the scope of the consolidation of a canonical definition; b) methodological aspects aimed at facilitating processes; and c) the identification of determinants and conditioning factors of the emergence of social innovation processes. This work aims to advance in this sense, using as a reference the context of complex organizations, especially in the Third Sector. This choice is due to the fact that the bibliography confirms that they are especially privileged actors in facilitating this type of process. The methodological option chosen is the application of a Grounded Theory approach that has been triangulated through the application of a DELPHI panel. Among the main achievements in the work carried out is, as has been said, the elaboration of a theoretical model to explain the processes of intentional social innovation, as well as the identification of its main related capacities, from which can carry out the design of a tool for measuring social innovation in complex Third Sector organizations.