Social Innovation: as Shared Responsibility

Abstract

From a functional mark of entrepreneurship, innovation has been getting into conceptual and operational expenses. One expression is social innovation. In its basic form, social innovation represents a clear deviation from the existing modes and solutions. It stands for new ideas that meet unmet needs. The fundamental orientation of any social innovation is towards exploring new paths in entrepreneurship and towards evolving novel solutions to social problems. In this mould, social innovation moves beyond the oft conceived strongholds of non-profit social enterprises. Its reaches cut across the traditional boundaries separating non-profit sectors, Government and for profit organisations. Viewed in this perspective social innovation becomes a shared responsibility. Catching on the nature of social innovation to be a process and an outcome of responsible agency, this paper is oriented towards examining the conceptual and practical routes of perceiving social innovation as a responsibility shared by multiple agents across the working spectrum of the same. It focuses on conceptualising social innovation as shared responsibility. The objectives are twofold: one, searching for the conceptual and theoretical spaces accommodative to this perception;two,unfolding an empirical context which fits in its line. The former courses through conceptual and theoretical bases; the latter rests on analytical inputs from a study on She Taxi, an entrepreneurship driven model denoting fleets of women driven Taxis. This 24x7 travelling cab system, designed, developed and operated by the Government of Kerala partnering with the private and social sectors as the first of its kind initiative for addressing issues of women safety and security, is selected as a case for discerning social innovation as shared responsibility.