How social start-ups avoid being falling stars when developing social innovation

The aim of this study is to provide new insights into the social innovation (SI) development process in the context of social start-ups. A multiple case study identifies the issues and mechanisms for social start-ups to develop a social need into a potentially scalable innovation and to validate and scale it up, while avoiding a possible failure. Results show that key challenges faced by social start-ups can be characterized according to the stage of the SI development path. Firstly, social start-ups' failure can be caused by the lack of expertise in social problems and of flexible processes for social ventures creation; secondly, by the lack of awareness of SI benefits and proper resources allocation; and, finally, by a weak understanding of the impact and intangible outcomes of the developed SI in society, while ensuring its economic sustainability. Successfully overcoming these challenges requires social start-ups to put in place the following mechanisms: (1) leveraging a vision and motivations that balance tensions in terms of the radical, economic and cultural aspects of SI; (2) engaging the SI stakeholders in different (and sequential) phases of SI development process; and (3) identifying and adopting the most suitable technological, financial and communication tools in an integrated way

Green process innovation: Where we are and where we are going

Environmental pollution has worsened in the past few decades, and increasing pressure is being put on firms by different regulatory bodies, customer groups, NGOs and other media outlets to adopt green process innovations (GPcIs), which include clean technologies and end-of-pipe solutions. Although considerable studies have been published on GPcI, the literature is disjointed, and as such, a comprehensive understanding of the issues, challenges and gaps is lacking. A systematic literature review (SLR) involving 80 relevant studies was conducted to extract seven themes: strategic response, organisational learning, institutional pressures, structural issues, outcomes, barriers and methodological choices. The review thus highlights the various gaps in the GPcI literature and illuminates the pathways for future research by proposing a series of potential research questions. This study is of vital importance to business strategy as it provides a comprehensive framework to help firms understand the various contours of GPcI. Likewise, policymakers can use the findings of this study to fill in the loopholes in the existing regulations that firms are exploiting to circumvent taxes and other penalties by locating their operations to emerging economies with less stringent environmental regulations.publishedVersio

Stakeholder collaboration in climate-smart agricultural production innovations: insights from the Cocoa industry in Ghana

Although collaboration is vital in addressing global environmental sustainability challenges, research understanding on stakeholder engagement in climate-smart production innovation adoption and implementation, remains limited. In this paper, we advance knowledge about stakeholder collaboration by examining the roles played by stakeholders in scaling up ecological sustainability innovations. Using the illustrative context and case of green cocoa industry in Ghana, the analysis identified three distinctive phases of stakeholder engagement in ecological sustainability innovations implemented from 1960-2017. We highlight defining periods of ecological challenges encompassing the production recovery sustainability initiative phase solely driven by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD)–a governmental body responsible for production, processing and marketing of cocoa, coffee and sheanut. During the period, major initiatives were driven by non-governmental organisations in collaboration with COCOBOD to implement the Climate-Smart agriculture scheme in the cocoa sector. The findings have implications for cocoa production research and stakeholder collaboration in environmental innovations adoption

Smart wearable technologies: state of the art and evolution over time through patent analysis and clustering

The successful introduction and application of smart wearable technologies (SWTs) will allow the production of new generations of innovative and high value-added products. To this aim, we have built a unique database of 1313 patents included in the Thomson Innovation database, which were registered between 2001 and 2015 in the SWTs domain. This study shows the development trends in SWTs both in general and in different products classes, identifies leading countries and companies in different technological classes, and recognises basic patents within each year. Further, cluster analysis is used to identify the most relevant technological clusters and their evolution over time. This study offers a complete overview of the state of the art and of the evolution of SWTs over time, so providing important insights to researchers and managers who, based on this study results, will be able to make more informed decisions on research directions and technology strategies

National culture's influence on environmental performance of countries: A study of direct and indirect effects

The effect of national culture on country environmental performance has received attention during the past few years. However, previous studies considered a subset of cultural dimensions, focused on diverse environmental performance measures, provided contrasting results, and did not adequately investigated the mediating effects of socio-economic variables. In this study, we investigate the impact of all cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, indulgence) on three environmental performance measures at the country level: the environmental performance index and its two main overarching objectives. Both direct and indirect effects, through three socio-economic variables (population growth, education, income), are tested using a sample of 62 countries. Results show that the effect of cultural dimensions may vary based on the specific cultural dimension and the type of environmental performance measure considered. Masculinity and indulgence directly impact on environmental performance. Power distance has no influence on environmental performance measures. The other dimensions affect environmental performance through the mediating effect of socio-economic variables

Is Covid-19 changing sustainable consumer behavior? A survey of Italian consumers

Since the beginning of 2020, the world has been hit by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. To hamper its spread, policymakers of many countries have put in place strong countermeasures, including lockdowns, that have led to significant changes in people's lifestyles and daily routines. This article aims at assessing the changes caused by Covid-19 in sustainable consumer behavior under multiple perspectives, contributing to advance knowledge at the intersection between consumer dynamics and sustainable consumer behavior literature. A survey was conducted on 1.535 Italian consumers between December 2020 and February 2021. Respondents were asked to assess the extent to which their consumption behavior—purchase frequency, willingness to pay a premium price, sense of moral duty to purchase, social influence to purchase—related to several categories of sustainable products changed due to the pandemic, as well as the extent to which the pandemic impacted on many other aspects, including their environmental awareness, concern, and habits. Results show that Covid-19 generated relevant changes. Consumers have increased their purchase frequency and willingness to pay for sustainable products, show growing attention to environmental issues, and behave more sustainably. Further, the extent of change is strongly affected by socio-demographic variables, such as gender, age, income, and education. For instance, women reported a higher shift towards sustainable consumption and behavior than men. Understanding these changes is important to guide marketers and policymakers to respond promptly and effectively to them and to leverage on them to foster a transition towards a more sustainable society

Sustainability-oriented Capabilities for Eco-Innovation: Meeting the Regulatory, Technology and Market Demands

Despite consensus in the literature that regulation, technology push, and market pull drive eco‐innovation (EI), evidence remains limited on the diverse firm capabilities needed to boost EI. Building on the natural‐resource‐based view of the firm and the EI literature, this paper posits that firms need to renew and realign their capabilities, and ultimately develop distinctive sustainability‐oriented capabilities, in order to meet the rapidly changing regulatory, technology, and market demands. Results of the analysis, based on a survey of U.K. firms, reveal that EIs are more likely to arise when firms (a) build capabilities on voluntary self‐regulation (i.e., executive driven environmental management system and corporate social responsibility) because such organizational capabilities allow them to address increasing regulatory pressures; (b) invest in environmental research and development (i.e., eco‐R&D)—instead of generic research and development—because it provides them with the relevant and specific technological capabilities to tackle technology shifts towards sustainability; and (c) develop capabilities in green market sensing as such capabilities allow them to address green consumption needs

Falling stars when doing social: case studies of social start-ups

The purpose of this paper is to provide new insights into mechanisms for successful implementation of social innovation and survival of social start-ups. Despite the increasing interest in the social dimension of sustainability-oriented innovations and the recognition of new firms among key drivers of innovation, social start-ups are still understudied in the literature. Aiming at a comprehensive understanding of challenges, tools and practices carried out by social start-ups, the research employs a multiple case study for theory development. We selected six Italian innovative start-ups having an explicit “social vocation” and we collected data from interviews to people directly involved in the social innovation process and archival documents. The case studies were then analysed to search for patterns of mechanisms of social start-ups to develop SI and successfully reach the scaling up phase, while avoiding a possible failure. Results show that social start-ups are successful in their innovation process when focusing on knowledge sharing and identity formation. They need to rely both on communities (e.g. through web platforms or direct relations with the institutions of the social system) and collaboration in R&D projects with single institutions (e.g. universities and research centres) to sustain their innovative ideas, develop their role within the wider society (especially in terms of better awareness of social innovation meaning and impact) and build their relational capital. The results contribute to enrich the field of research on social innovation by studying mechanisms and challenges in the context of start-ups, recognised as a key actor contributing to the sustainable development of innovation. Moreover, managerial implications are mainly in providing a reference for innovation managers, social entrepreneurs and other stakeholders such as policy makers and venture capitalists interested in understanding the most suitable practices to be carried out and stakeholders to involve in order to increase social value and carry out SI until the phase of scaling up