Social Business Model Innovation: A Quadruple/Quintuple Helix-Based Social Innovation Ecosystem

Social innovation is related to new products, services, and models aiming to improve human well-being and create social relationships and collaborations. The business model innovation (BMI) context can foster social innovation and can be applied in social innovation projects and initiatives. What is important for social BMI is the social mission, which needs to be defined in order to be able to move forward with the strategy, the value proposition, and the best practices of the business. Based on the existing social innovation literature and case studies, this paper proposes an ecosystem approach that can provide an integrated framework for social business models. This approach adopts the quadruple/quintuple helix innovation models which are able to promote social innovation, enabling a locus-centric and triple-bottom-line-centric entrepreneurial process of knowledge discovery and exploitation. Such a framework may help to study the role, nature, and dynamics of social co-opetitive fractal ecosystems, given emphasis on civil society, political structures, environment, and sustainability. In addition, the social innovation case studies presented in this paper highlight that targeted open innovation is a key element for social BMI.

Automated summary

Social innovation is linked to new products, services, and models aimed at enhancing human well-being and fostering social relationships and collaborations. Business model innovation (BMI) can support social innovation by focusing on the social mission, which is crucial for defining strategy, value proposition, and best practices. The paper proposes an ecosystem approach based on quadruple/quintuple helix innovation models to promote social innovation and study social co-opetitive fractal ecosystems.