Design for Social Enterprises: How Design Thinking Can Support Social Innovation within Social Enterprises

Abstract

This paper investigates the contribution of design thinking to sustaining social innovation within the field of social enterprise.

The first part frames the knowledge that forms the background of the paper, by interconnecting the concepts of social innovation, social enterprise, and design thinking and by introducing the field of ‘design for social enterprises’ as a combination of different design methods and tools.

Next, an action research project is described: the programme entitled ‘Service Design: change to innovate’, in which the authors worked with two social enterprises to co-design a new generation of collaborative services.

Building upon this experimentation, the paper concludes by reflecting on the possible contribution of the designer in triggering an organizational and cultural change within social enterprises, and consequently becoming a sort of ‘Cultural operator’, thus opening up room for further research.

Keywords:

• social enterprise
• social innovation
• design thinking
• service design
• co-design

Notes

1. TEPSIE: exploring the Theoretical, Empirical and Policy Foundations for Social Innovation in Europe.

2. SIMPACT: Boosting the Impact of Social Innovation in Europe through Economic Underpinnings.

3. CRESSI: Creating Economic Space for Social Innovation.

4. TRANSIT: TRANsformative Social Innovation Theory.

5. TRANSITION: Transnational Network for Social Innovation Incubation.

6. SEFORIS: Social Enterprise as Force for more Inclusive and Innovative Societies.

7. PERSE: The Socio-Economic Performance of Social Enterprises in the Field of Integration by Work.

8. BENISI: Scaling social innovation.

9. A flagship initiative of the Europe 2020 Growth Strategy.

10. Initiative of the OECD’s Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate.

11. Cross-governmental innovation unit which involves citizens and businesses in creating new solutions for society.

12. Jointly owned by the UK Government and Nesta.

13. Developed by the Design Council and the UK Government.

14. The consortium includes 37 co-operatives delivering services in the health, social, and educational sectors (A-type) and in job inclusion of disadvantaged workers (B-type).

15. European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises.

16. Bank foundation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniela Selloni

Daniela Selloni is a research fellow with a PhD in Design, and is adjunct professor at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano. Her research interests cover service design and social innovation, focusing on co-design, citizen activism, design for democracy, sharing economy.

Marta Corubolo

Marta Corubolo is currently a PhD candidate at the POLIMI DESIS Lab of the Design Department in Politecnico di Milano. Her research activities are focused on design for social innovation, corporate social responsibility, and co-design.