Defining social innovation: theoretical discourse

Abstract

Although the scope of the theoretical discourse on business innovation today is remarkable and still growing, its off-spring „social innovation" is yet only in the process of formation. Gone are those days when economically advanced European Union countries made every effort to enhancing business innovation in their national economy sectors. Nowadays, even the most successful EU Member States show increasing interest in developing such innovation products that could overcome the failure of the existing national economy models to handle increasing social problems caused by regional disparities, social inequality, availability of primary and secondary education and health care. Latvia is one of those EU Member States, which still is exposed to uneven economic development and its caused social consequences such as unemployment, social exclusion, unavailability of social services in the regions. The intention of the authors is to explore the potential of target-oriented social innovation creation in Latvia regions to eliminate their disparities. In this respect, the authors consider that before conducting so specific research, it is first of all necessary to summarize the existing definitions of social innovation and, based on them, formulate a new, specially designed definition that would most precisely comply with and could be used in the context of regional development studies. The study uses monographic method, methods of analysis and synthesis, method of scientific induction and scientific deduction. In scope of the research, the authors have clarified the narrow and broad context of social innovation concept and have formulated a new definition, which will be used in the further authors' research devoted to regional development studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]