Towards the conceptual understanding of social innovation and inclusive innovation: a literature review

ABSTRACT

In facing some of the structural social problems such as inequality, poverty, and social exclusion, innovation literature, particularly related to social innovation and inclusive innovation, accounts for the existence of several conceptual categories as proposal to analyze, treat and solve these problems. These categories are complex, polysemic and in many cases, there are conflicts in their definition, scope, purpose, and other aspects. This work contrasts notions of social innovation and inclusive innovation to explain similarities and differences associated to those conflicts. The methodology used includes a literature review complemented by an author’s cluster analysis and a thematic cluster analysis approach was carried out using bibliometric tools. Main findings prove that conceptual similarities between both trends are explained because there is common origin under the term innovation. On the other hand, significant differences lie in the problems they seek to solve and the type of population assisted, while inclusive innovation explicitly implies the reduction of the exclusion condition of a specific population; social innovation encompasses general problems of a society, whether it is excluded or not.

KEYWORDS:

• Social innovation
• inclusive innovation
• development
• literature review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Universidad Católica de Oriente.