Discuss The Impact Of Social Innovation On Corporate Social Responsibility

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Impact of Social Innovation on Corporate Social Responsibility In the present market economy, social innovation should not replace Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) but should enhance it. Some scholars have shown that whereas innovation has been an integral part of a company’s survival it was not part of CSR (Carroll and Shabana, 2010). In the past, CSR was applied in areas of citizenship duties and operation licences; however, this is not sufficient in the modern complex business environment (Googins, 2013). Recently, multinational companies have lost their standing in the community and many view businesses as part of the problems plaguing the society. Nonetheless, the reduction in public sector resources and its power has put more pressure …show more content…

The concept of social innovation has metamorphosed the way companies do business. No longer do companies only consider the short-term shareholder value, but now firms consider the social and physical environments in which they operate. It, therefore, goes without saying that this is only achievable through proper accountability. The advent of social media has given the power back to the consumers, and this has brought about change necessitating the companies to also value their customers—if not more—as they do their …show more content…

First and foremost, is the factor of co-creation. For sustainability to be achieved companies must ditch the top-down approach and apply the opposite. Business executives must involve other stakeholders, both internal and external, to ascertain what needs to be done and how to do it. This is co-creation. For instance, the co-designing of products is a co-creation approach, where customers are involved in the product development process ensuring the end product satisfies the triple bottom line. Moreover, businesses should make sure they practice co-creative planning. All stakeholders should be involved in the planning process, and this would make certain that the company’s initiatives have an impact on the society. Another approach is bottom-up and it makes the employees the central cog in the innovation process. Such a concept, when applied to sustainability, shifts the focus from the happenings at the management level to what decisions the mid and front-line level employees make. The lower level employees are the ones who take daily actions that could make or break a company’s sustainability potential. A bottom-up approach has a multiplier effect since it is easily visible to others and becomes quite difficult to thwart. Furthermore, the daily decisions made by mid-level employees incorporate the views of the

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