THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: The Case of the Retail Food Industry

Technological innovations result not just from advances in science, but also social system reorganization. Reorganization is problematic, as various organizations and constituents pursue their interests and causes. Expanding on previous work in the economics and sociology of innovation, three cases from the retail food industry (frozen meat, boxed beef, and scanners) illustrate the process described in a politicized-context model of innovation. Market context, political contingencies, and established social relations all influence innovations. Thus, including these factors in the politicized-context model provides better understanding of the particular paths of innovation.     

Social Enterprise Innovation: A Quantitative Analysis of Global Patterns

Social enterprise and innovation are inextricably linked in the literature (Chell et al. in Entrepr Reg Dev 22(6):485–493, 2010; Dees in Harv Bus Rev 76:54, 1998; Light in Stanf Soc Innov Rev 4(3):47–51, 2006). To date, research on social enterprise innovation has predominantly focused on micro-level factors, such as the social entrepreneur or organizational attributes. Inversely, recent empirical advances on social enterprise find a country’s social enterprise sector is influenced by macro-institutional factors, including form of government, stage of economic development, culture and model of civil society (Monroe-White and Coskun, in: Shaping social enterprise: understanding institutional context and influence, Emerald Publishing Limited, London, pp 27–48, 2017). Given the link between social enterprise and innovation, recent empirical findings around social enterprise beg the question, do macro-institutional factors similarly predict innovation by social enterprises? This paper uses a hierarchical linear model to examine the influence of national-level variables on social enterprise innovation. Results indicate that similar to social enterprise, macro-institutional factors predict social enterprise innovation. More specifically, macro-institutional factors influence the various types of innovations (product, process and marketing) differently. Moreover, country-level innovation is traditionally defined by economic factors, such as R&D funding and STEM workforce, however, these factors do not help explain social enterprise innovation. Given the social aspects of social enterprise innovation, to capture the full scope of innovation within countries, expanded definitions of national-level innovation should be considered.     

Identifying social innovations in European local rural development initiatives

Social innovation is attracting increasing attention in research and policy, heightened by continuing austerity across Europe. Therefore, this paper examines earlier research into community-led local development (CLLD) initiatives in rural areas of Europe to develop our understanding of the meaning and scope of rural social innovation. We draw on a Schumpeterian view where innovations emerge from new combinations of resources that bring about positive changes and create value in society. A Schumpeterian social innovation framework is derived as the basis for re-analysing data from previous evaluations of LEADER policy in five different national contexts. This elicits a clearer understanding of social innovation in a rural development context, identifying different processes and outcomes that create social value. As the CLLD agenda and the demand for innovation in Europe gather pace, our aspirations are to inform future research and other initiatives on how to integrate social innovation into the design and evaluation of new rural development policies and programmes.     

The (social) innovation – subjective well-being nexus: subjective well-being impacts as an additional assessment metric of technological and social innovations

It cannot be assumed that technological innovations and social innovations are desirable per se. An innovation usually has positive as well as negative impacts on people, making its normative assessment a major research challenge. This has become increasingly recognized in the innovation literature. At the same time, subjective well-being (SWB) research has developed and matured largely independently of innovation studies. This paper puts forward a general conceptual framework of the (social) innovation – SWB nexus as a step towards the development of a unified normative “well-being theory of innovation” that applies to all types of innovation, e.g. social as well as technological innovation. Its main feature is the inclusion of multiple direct and indirect SWB impacts of processes as well as of outcomes. The framework can act as a focussing device that raises awareness of the many potential SWB impacts of innovation. SWB impacts should be used as an additional metric in the assessment of innovation, complementing other assessment approaches.     

Interlegislator Relations and Policy Making: A Sociological Study of Roll‐Call Voting in a State Legislature1

Legislative roll‐call voting is crucial in policy making. Standard approaches to studying roll‐call voting focus on legislator attributes, ignoring how social factors, such as legislator relations, may drive voting. Using original data based on a state legislature, I adopt a relational approach to examine how legislator relations impact roll‐call voting net of attributes. Results show that relations strongly influence voting, adding significantly to the explanatory power of the models. These results imply that standard approaches to studying roll‐call voting should incorporate consideration of social factors, suggesting the value of social influence models in studies of political phenomena.     

From Advocacy to Social Innovation: A Typology of Social Change Efforts by Nonprofits

Literature describing the social change efforts of direct social service nonprofits focuses primarily on their political advocacy role or the ways in which practitioners in organizations address individual service user needs. To elicit a more in-depth understanding of the varying ways that these nonprofits promote social change, this research builds off of the innovation literature in nonprofits. It presents a model of the typology of social innovations based on the empirical findings from survey data from a random sample (n = 241) and interview data (n = 31) of direct social service nonprofits in Alberta, Canada. Exploratory principal factor analysis was used to uncover the underlying structure of the varying types of social innovations undertaken by direct service nonprofits. Results support a three-factor model including socially transformative, product, and process-related social innovations. The qualitative findings provide a conceptual map of the varied foci of social change efforts.     

Innovations in teaching social work research

This article reviews the innovations in teaching research in social work education, including conceptual material and specific examples. There is attention to the ideological differences inherent in research and its instruction, methodology/technology innovations, and integrative and group approaches, among other developments. Examination of three major models of research instruction and their assumptions about the purpose of research in social work is presented. Discussion about ethical codes and curricular guidelines for social work programs in the United States and the United Kingdom provides a framework to understand the importance of teaching and learning research for the social work profession.     

JOB STRESS, DRINKING NETWORKS, AND SOCIAL SUPPORT AT WORK:

Most research examining the problem drinking behaviors of employees has sought to demonstrate that variation in alcohol consumption derives from nonrewarding or stressful aspects of modern work that promote intrapsychic stress and/or alienation. These inquiries have ignored additional job factors that might influence employee drinking patterns. We extend this literature by developing and testing a comprehensive model of influences on employee problem drinking. The model includes the simultaneous influences of stressful working conditions, participation in job-based drinking networks, and perceived social support on the job. Analyses of data from the 1991 National Employee Survey (NES) indicate that this explanatory model significantly improves our understanding of the job-related influences on employee problem drinking. We also demonstrate that each class of job factors has important mediated influences on problem drinking that result from their association with individualized job escapist-oriented reasons for drinking.     

A multi-level analysis of individual and agency effects on implementation of family-centered practice in child welfare

This study describes factors associated with the implementation of family centered practice (FCP) across a state child welfare system. Using Multi-Level Model (MLM) analysis of self-report data from the child welfare workers and supervisors in one multi-jurisdiction state, individual and organizational factors that may influence successful implementation of innovative practice models are identified. Individual worker's characteristics such as social work degree, training, and age were all associated with higher levels of individual adoption of FCP principles. Organizational culture including innovation and flexibility and outward focus were associated with organization level implementation of FCP principles. Implications for child welfare practice and implementation of FCP are discussed.     

How and when does speech-acting generate social innovations

Speaking is a normal, a special and ubiquitous human activity. Speaking or writing as a subjective and willful activity directed at others takes place within a dense set of behavioral norms. Speaking also activates selectively resources, concepts, logics and rules in language. We investigate the power of the language institution, speech-acting, constructed narratives and deliberations in creating social innovations. We look at new organizations, especially the constitution of new groups with operative collective intentions as social innovations. We ask how speech-acting theory can add or deepen insight into the constitution, the creation, the sustainability and the breakdown of organizations. Speech-acting theory has a focus on rationality as reasoning. Both Amartya Sen and John Searle have delved into reasoning – as creative subjectivity in multi-institutional settings. We try to exploit critically some of their philosophical findings into the field of empirical organization and social innovation studies.     

Social innovation: Buzz word or enduring term?

The term ‘social innovation’ has come into common parlance in recent years. Some analysts consider social innovation no more than a buzz word or passing fad that is too vague to be usefully applied to academic scholarship. Some social scientists, however, see significant value in the concept of social innovation because it identifies a critical type of innovation. In this paper, we suggest one possible definition of social innovation and show that when its empirical meaning is distilled, the term is of great importance. We distinguish social innovation from business innovation, and identify a subset of social innovations that requires government support.     

OUT OF UTOPIA:

An important segment of writings on postindustrialization is distinctly utopian in stressing the greater mastery and control made possible by recent innovations in information technology. The utopian theme underscores the technical outcomes of innovations and highlights their benefits for ameliorating social problems. By contrast, our work suggests that many of the social problems in contemporary society are a consequence of recent innovations in information technology. We argue that postindustrial theorists are correct in stressing mastery over certain technical problems but incorrect in slighting the destabilizing effect innovations have on organizations and the markets in which these organizations participate. These destabilizing effects complicate organizational strategies by increasing market risk and uncertainty. Since most organizations are risk aversive, social problems are created as organizations externalize their costs and pass along risk to other, more dependent actors. Illustrations from two institutions, politics and the economy, indicate that many postindustrial innovations are associated with heightened competition as well as greater risk and uncertainty across the institutional order. We conclude that postindustrial technology introduces no net gain in man aging the complexities of the social world. Risk and control are both integral to technological innovation and constitute the paradox of postindustrialization.     

Local Experts in the Domestication of Information and Communication Technologies

Research into the adoption and use of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) pays increasing attention to social context; however, the social fabric of contexts of use is often poorly theorized. This paper presents an investigation into the formation and operation of informal local networks of collaboration and knowledge exchange. It highlights the role of local experts in sustaining these informal networks and helping individuals and groups adopt and cope with new ICTs. The paper draws on a range of analytic traditions, including domestication and consumer research, to assess how local experts transfer knowledge, ideas of use and even new technologies across social networks and across the boundaries between home, work and education and other domains of life. The methodology deployed attempts to overcome the limitations of many studies of the adoption and diffusion of innovations in sample selection, especially the inclusion of non-adopters. It addresses the social dynamics of engagement with new technologies and proposes a move beyond a simple individualistic adopter/non-adopter model, with consequent implications for understanding digital inclusion and exclusion.     

Theorizing surveillance and social spacing through football: The fan-opticon and beyond

This article critically examines the temporal mobilizations of a 25-year football supporter social movement against the all-seating (stadia) legislation in England and Wales, to unpack, and advance, (neo-)Foucauldian panoptic theorizations of surveillance power and counter-power. Drawing upon prior empirically informed analysis of this movement; ‘Safe Standing’, the article interrogates new policy-based outcomes, including the early adoption of ‘licensed (Safe) Standing’ technology in 2022, to argue, that whilst publicly framed as a movement victory, it simultaneously serves to prefigure a new regulatory regime in football; one which extends the regulation and surveillance of fans within the wider social and corporate lifeworld. Introducing our new concept; the ‘fan-opticon’, the article discusses how Safe Standing continues to normalize a momentum of surveillance in sport and highlights the contradictory nature of security-related projects in the twenty-first century. We conclude that the governmentality of the state through football, to be characteristic of temporally sensitive hermeneutic struggles of power and resistance, through the discipline, and self-discipline of social actors. New forms of subjectivity are remoulded in ways which extend the power of surveillance and regulation, despite multiple counter-conduct, and discursive, resistance practices.     

FINANCIAL INNOVATION, PRICE SMOOTHING, AND MONETARY POLICY

This paper examines an unregulated transaction services market that is subject to financial innovation in an economy that experiences aggregate supply and demand shocks. The availability of this unregulated market to transactors smooths the price response to these shocks. However, financial innovations act as money supply shocks that increase price disturbances. If there is persistence in the real aggregate supply shocks and in the rate of adoption of financial innovations, then the central bank can forecast some portion of the changes in transaction requirements that accompany these shocks and damp the residual variation in prices by accommodating these anticipated needs.     

Organizational Compatibility and Workplace Drug Testing: Modeling the Adoption of Innovative Social Control Practices

Few researchers have examined organizational variation in the adoption of workplace drug testing, but innovation theory suggests that adoption is more likely when it is compatible with an organization's values, previously introduced ideas, and needs. Using data from the 1997 National Employee Survey, this research models the effects of organizational compatibility, industry, and establishment size on the adoption of drug testing. The data reveal that compatibility, as measured by an organization's rules orientation, presence of an employee assistance program, and mechanization, is associated with the adoption of drug testing. As predicted, the adoption of drug testing varies across industries and by establishment size.     

Measuring to Improve Versus Measuring to Prove: Understanding the Adoption of Social Performance Measurement Practices in Nascent Social Enterprises

Social enterprises are described as organizations with dual objectives—social and commercial. While the measurement of commercial performance is relatively straightforward and well understood, our understanding of the factors related to measuring social performance is more ambiguous. Is the adoption of social performance measurement (SPM) practices more related to external pressures, such as the need to demonstrate legitimacy to funders and peers, or is it more closely related to the growing rationalization within the social sector? We examine the relationship between external and internal factors and the adoption of SPM using a novel dataset of 1864 nascent social enterprises from around the world. Our findings suggest support for the argument that the adoption of SPM in social enterprise is related to the growing rationalization of the social sector, which challenges some of the past research on this topic, and provides a more nuanced perspective of SPM in social enterprise.     

Social networks and innovation adoption: A look at burt's use of structural equivalence

This paper examines Burt's 1982 model of innovation adoption based on an application of structural equivalence. The proposition that two structurally equivalent actors will adopt an innovation at approximately the same time is explored. The diffusion of two innovations through a network of commercial fishermen provides the basis for an empirical test. Tentative support for this proposition is found, particularly if the effects of information availability, economic competition, and the appropriateness of the innovation are taken into account.