Enhancing the social innovation ecosystem: pathways for incubating social entrepreneurship for rural sustainability

• In Event: Social enterprise and social innovation

Abstract

In Asia, as in much of the world, rural and peri-urban areas are facing social, economic and ecological decline due to pressures of urbanisation and globalisation, which governments are struggling to address (MEA 2005). Social entrepreneurship (SE) is increasingly seen as an attractive alternative (Low et al. 2016). SEs are part of a larger social innovation ecosystem, comprised of an array of actors, resources and support services (Neumeyer & Santos. 2018). Within this system, incubators are active contributors. They can catalyse the development of sustainable social innovation ecosystems by supporting the creation of programmes that increase social awareness, encourage the flow of new SEs into local economies and support and develop established ventures (Theodaraki et al. 2018).

Social innovation ecosystems do not always provide SEs with the appropriate tools or support to effect change (Audretsch et al. 2022). This is especially as social innovations cannot be generated in the same manner as technological innovations (Fifka & Idowu 2013). SEs often struggle from a lack of funding, network access and human resources as well as face difficulties in scaling-up their innovations, with support often limited to addressing specific societal challenges (Ishigaki & Sashida 2013, Chalmers 2012). Rural revitalisation initiatives are often overlooked by social innovation funds and available support tends to only be accessible to those with business acumen. Consequently, potentially impactful SEs and their innovations are overlooked (British Consulate 2020, Chan et al. 2022).

Within the social innovation ecosystem, the role of entrepreneurs, companies, civil society and the state as enabling, developing or receiving the benefits of social innovations are frequently highlighted (Avelino et al. 2019, Bayuo et al. 2020). More recently, increasing attention is paid to the role of universities (Bayuo et al. 2020). Universities tend to be conceptualised in relation to their teaching and knowledge generation functions (Cinar & Benneworth 2021), being described as organisations with knowledge potentially relevant to innovation activities and not development agencies mandated to support social innovation systems (Benneworth & Cunha 2015, Perkman et al. 2013).

Shifts in understandings and perceptions highlight that universities can take a more proactive and engaged role in their communities (Bayuo et al. 2020). By improving understandings of the structure and dynamics of social innovation ecosystems, we demonstrate how universities can expand their roles in supporting SEs in the realm of rural revitalisation. Through developing alternative ‘pathways’ to incubate SEs, universities can plug gaps in the social innovation ecosystem. This involves moving beyond technical incubation endeavours and conventional knowledge exchange to directly engage with social innovations and SEs. We demonstrate these pathway approaches through several rural revitalisation projects originating from The University of Hong Kong. Through project documents, surveys and interview data collected from these projects, we show how a university can enhance and leverage the social innovation ecosystem, to directly incubate and support SEs in providing rural revitalisation solutions. This study highlights the potential of universities to proactively and interactively engage with their communities and SEs to further rural sustainability objectives.

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Authors

• Jessica Williams, Centre for Civil Society and Governance, the University of Hong Kong

• Wai-Fung LAM, Centre for Civil Society and Governance, the University of Hong Kong

• Winnie W Y Law, Centre for Civil Society and Governance, the University of Hong Kong