TP 4 (Sub-)Project Description

WP 4 NACHOS | Section: Introduction

Key research question of the sub-project: 

What problems do profit-oriented companies encounter when disseminating social innovation?

 

WP 4: The role of profit-oriented companies and their employees in social innovation

(PI: Prof. Dr Sabrina Jeworrek | Co-PIs: Prof. Dr Michael Dick, Prof. Dr Marlin Ulmer)

Social innovations are intended to serve people and promote their participation in society. Given the increasingly complex challenges facing our society, the Federal Government has presented a ‘Ministry-wide Strategy on Social Innovation’, which sets out the objectives and funding instruments for social innovation (BMBF 2021). However, funding instruments can only achieve their full impact if the motivations of the stakeholders and the associated societal reactions are understood. Many companies, for example, set themselves targets in the areas of the environment, social issues and responsible corporate governance (ESG for Environment, Social and Governance), but are just as often criticised for merely engaging in ‘greenwashing’ in order to retain or attract customers or to motivate staff. Could genuine social innovations by profit-oriented companies therefore fail due to a lack of acceptance by society, even though such companies may have greater reach and more experience in implementing innovations compared to so-called ‘social start-ups’? This question, along with possible contextual factors that could influence acceptance (e.g. family-run businesses versus listed companies), will be examined as a first step.

Although research in the areas of corporate social responsibility (CSR), ESG targets and social innovations has seen an enormous surge in interest in recent years, much of this research focuses either on the characteristics of social start-up founders or on the financial impact of ESG targets. Questions that could help us better understand whether and exactly how profit-oriented companies foster social innovation remain largely unanswered. This is precisely what the second stage of the sub-project will address. In particular, the following three questions will be addressed: Could ESG targets – even those that are perhaps not taken entirely seriously – nevertheless foster social innovation by inspiring ideas and promoting the creation of social start-ups? Can employees of profit-oriented companies be motivated at all to engage with social innovation if sustainability goals did not play a role in their choice of job or company and they lack intrinsic motivation? (How) can profit-oriented companies attract employees who have an intrinsic interest in social innovation and wish to get involved?

To answer the questions proposed in this sub-project, data must be collected specifically through surveys and experiments. Experiments are mostly carried out with students at the university. However, to obtain as representative a picture as possible regarding questions of acceptance, a panel provider such as ‘infas quo’ should be used, whereas the motivations (particularly the role of profit-oriented companies) for founding a social start-up could be investigated, for example, in cooperation with the Social Entrepreneurship Network Germany (SEND for short).