
Professors Adrian Zicari, ESSEC Business School; Tanusree Jain, Trinity Business School; Concepcion Galdon, IE Business School; and Mario Aquino Alves, FGV-EAESP, invite academics and researchers to a friendly, design-thinking workshop on Social Innovation. The 2021 SASE Conference, Saturday July 3rd, 6pm CEST.
Co-Creating a Research Agenda for Social Innovation.
The last decade has witnessed an increasing awareness about Sustainability, the role of economic organizations in protecting the planetary boundaries, and the urge to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the 2030 horizon. This awareness has only increased during the Covid-19 crisis, which is still ongoing in many countries. In the context of pressing global challenges, unexpected changes and intense social anxiety, Social Innovation is timelier than ever. There is a need for novel ideas, new approaches, and courageous implementations.
Research that aims to benefit professionals
We consequently propose a Panel entitled, “Co-creating a Research Agenda for Social Innovation”. Inspired by the Design Thinking methodology and particularly by its recent applications for social innovation, we seek to create a space for reflection, discussion and learning with participants around Social Innovation. The purpose of this Session is to identify ideas, topics and approaches in Social Innovation that are both novel and attractive. Social Innovation being such a dynamic field, we emphasize the need for actionable research that could spur in time fruitful and practical-oriented collaborations between academics and practitioners and thus accelerate the implementation of social innovations.
Social innovation

Social Innovation is a broad concept including the use of new technologies, the development of new organizational practices, as well as societal and market methods or inventions. In business literature, social innovation could be viewed from two different perspectives. The first underpins the social character of an organization that facilitates innovations for the benefit of society, sometimes based on technology, and eventually spurring institutional changes. And the second corresponds to the potential of social innovations to create new ventures through commercial collaborations with nonprofit organizations, and the creation of social businesses and alternative organizations.
This session will hopefully result in a comprehensive framework of ideas that describe, depict, and illustrate novel research questions and enquiries for exploration, thus illustrating potential paths for actionable research. Whenever possible, we will arrange and organise these potential contributions along the lines of SDGs in order to better articulate these ideas within the framework of Sustainability.
With this Session, we hope to contribute to the SASE community by providing fresh ideas that could help advance the ongoing discussions on Social Innovation. Hoping to see you there!
Sources:
- Lietka, 2018; Lewrick et al., 2018
- Liedtka et al., 2017; Manzini and Coad, 2015
- George et al., 2016; Jones et al., 2016.
- Dacin et al., 2010; Battilana et al., 2009; van Wijk et al, 2019
- Kanter, 1999
- Austin, 2000
- Yunnus, 2007
- Parker et al, 2014; Barin-Cruz et al., 2017; Tracey & Stott, 2017

Moderator: Prof. Adrian Zicari, ESSEC Business School. Session organisers: Profs. Tanusree Jain, Trinity Business School; Concepcion Galdon, IE Business School; Mario Aquino Alves, FGV-EAESP; Adrian Zicari, ESSEC Business School.
Academics and researchers wishing to participate in this workshop are invited to register HERE.
Download the session brochure:
Learn more about the Council on Business & Society
- Website: www.council-business-society.org
- Twitter: @The_CoBS
- LinkedIn: the-council-on-business-&-society
The Council on Business & Society (The CoBS), visionary in its conception and purpose, was created in 2011, and is dedicated to promoting responsible leadership and tackling issues at the crossroads of business and society including sustainability, diversity, ethical leadership and the place responsible business has to play in contributing to the common good.
In 2020, member schools now number 7, all “Triple Crown” accredited AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA and leaders in their respective countries.
- ESSEC Business School, France-Singapore-Morocco
- FGV-EAESP, Brazil
- School of Management Fudan University, China
- IE Business School, Spain
- Keio Business School, Japan
- Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
- Warwick Business School, United Kingdom.
