Social innovation is associated with the discovery of a previously unexploited social need, the ability of an organisation to continue to exploit the social need in a sustainable way, and most importantly in doing so it needs to generate disequilibria within its industry. Let’s look at each of these factors in turn.
For a social entrepreneur or social enterprise to be truly socially innovative it is not enough for them to simply address a social need. Being socially innovative requires the individual or organisation to identify a previously un-addressed social issue. This could be the development of a new green technology, the support of a disadvantaged group of people who are not currently being supported or even creating a more productive or efficient method for dealing with a current social need. However this is approached it must provide something new.