Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM)

Term Paper on
Social Innovation

Amit Pathak (14325)

MBA IV Term
Term Paper

Course Instructor
Professor Rupesh Krishna Shrestha

March 18th 2015

Introduction
We talk a lot about how to innovate but we don't always talk about why we innovate. I
believe that we are now living in an innovative world where by if we could collectively put our
ideas or innovations together, and then we will surely create some positive changes in the in the
society. Social innovation is the key for the better society which will lead to the better world.
Social innovation is a process that enables these global ideas, concepts and values to
intermingle with traditional values. It will result in change and transformation of economic,
social, cultural and political structure of a society. How successfully a society or a community is
able to adapt and adopt these new trends in a meaningful method will define their success and
prosperity. There is currently much debate about what social innovation is and how it should be
defined. Some definitions are very specific and exclude many examples of social innovation
especially those which come from the market. Others are so broad that they include examples of
projects and organizations which are not particularly innovative even though they do deliver
benefits to the communities they serve. In short to understand in simple words, below mentioned
diagram is easy to value the concept of social innovation.

What is Social
Innovation?

Are more sustainable

Bring value to society

Idea that

Are more fair

Are novel solution

Are more effective

Are more efficient

Social innovation describes the entire process by which new responses to social needs are
developed in order to deliver better social outcomes. This process is composed of four main
elements:

Identification of new/unmet/inadequately met social needs;

Development of new solutions in response to these social needs;
Evaluation of the effectiveness of new solutions in meeting social needs;
Scaling up of effective social innovations.

Thesis Statement
This main aspiration of this term paper is focus on the role of social innovation in the society
and role pillar of social innovation and how it misconception with social entrepreneurship.

Social Innovation or Social Entrepreneur?

Major problem is that when the term Social Innovation is used to describe a thing which is
neither social nor innovative. Say suppose the terms like improvement, reform,
modernization etc are recounts with the term social innovation. There is a major reason for the
misconception of social innovation to be related with those terms as discussed. It may be that
social innovation is an emerging field and it is not much researched to its counterparts in
business, science and technology. Many parts to understand the fact that social innovation
doesnt have fixed boundaries and its taps all the sectors like public sector, private sector and
household sectors and cuts across.
The term social innovation is often used linked with social entrepreneurship. But the thing is
they are overlapping but distinctive from each other. The term social entrepreneurship can be

defined as the behavior and attitude of an individual involved in creating a new ventures for
social purpose by taking risk. Whereas social innovation describes the process of invention and
adaption of services or business model whether in public, private or nonprofit sectors.

Who does Social Innovation? Individual (Entrepreneurs), Movement or Organization

Most discussion regarding the social innovation is that who does it or the changes happen?
There are three lenses for understanding over the role of social innovation; entrepreneurs,
movements for change or organization. As an entrepreneur, Steve Jobs come up with brilliant ideas
and against all the odds succeed at creating new products and services that dramatically improve
peoples lives. There are countless contemporary examples of similar social innovators from around
the world leaders of social innovation have included politicians, bureaucrats, intellectuals, business
people as well as NGO activists. Some are widely celebrated like Muhammad Yunus, the founder of
Grameen, Kenyan Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, or Saul Alinsky the highly influential
evangelist of community organizing in the USA. In terms of movement of change, Feminism is
growing out in almost many countries. Thousands of social innovations grew out of the movement:
from clubs and networks to promote women in particular professions, to integrated childcare centers,
abortion rights, equitable divorce laws, protections against rape and sexual harassment, maternity
leave and skills programs for mothers returning to the labor market. All of these movements have
enabled people to solve their own problem rather than waiting for the state or someone to solve the
problem for them.
The third part for understanding the social innovation is the organization. It is not necessary that
all innovation comes from new organizations. Many organizations come with the idea of renewing
themselves. Those kinds of organizations consistently need to focus on the existing idea and

activities and emerge few possibilities that could be mainstream for the future. Chhotukool is a
perfect example of an organization called Godrej. Chhotukool is a disruptive innovation by Godrej, a
mini fridge which is way different from a normal refrigerator, focused to innovate observing at the
rural market according to their need and constraints.

Conclusion

Our conception of social innovation has implications for thought leaders, policymakers, funders,
and practitioners. It captures not only the ends to which agents of social change aspire, but also
the full range of means through which we can attain those ends. The fields of social
entrepreneurship and social enterprise examine only a subset of paths specifically, the creation of
new and typically nonprofit ventures. Most difficult and important social problems cant be
understood, let alone solved, without involving the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. We
cannot even think about solving global warming, for example, without considering the role of
global petrochemical firms, national agencies such as Department of Energy, supranational
governmental agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank, and nonprofit groups
such as Greenpeace and Environmental Defense (James A Phill, 2008). The world needs more
social innovationand so all who aspire to solve the worlds most vexing problems
entrepreneurs, leaders, managers, activists, and change agentsregardless of whether they come
from the world of business, government, or nonprofits, must shed old patterns of isolation,
paternalism, and antagonism and strive to understand, embrace, and leverage cross-sector
dynamics to find new ways of creating social value.

Work Cited

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