Exploring the innovative practice of social innovations in non-profit organizations: An analytical framework

There are only vague ideas on what social innovations actually are, how they evolve and how they work in comparison to technical understandings of innovation management. In a comparative analysis of two case studies of two non-profit organizations advancing social innovation in Germany we investigate their innovative practice by reconstructing reflexive practices and their potential to disrupt societal routines. The first case study examines a nonprofit organization working with online-maps for people with special needs (Berlin, Germany), and the second study investigates a social non-profit project focusing on urban redevelopment (Chemnitz, Germany). We aim to identify synergetic effects from the two cases in order to generate a new approach for the understanding of social innovation. Building on the theory of path dependency and the concept of institutional reflexivity this contribution proposes three consecutive conceptual frameworks to investigate the characteristics and potential drivers of social innovation.