Jamie Jones and Grace Augustine
Hewlett-Packard (HP) had a long history of engaging in corporate citizenship, dating back to its founding. By 2009, however, under the leadership of its latest CEO, Mark Hurd, the…
Abstract
Hewlett-Packard (HP) had a long history of engaging in corporate citizenship, dating back to its founding. By 2009, however, under the leadership of its latest CEO, Mark Hurd, the company had lost its focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Hurd instead focused on undertaking a financial turnaround and overcoming other reputational challenges; he viewed CSR and philanthropic efforts as costs rather than as strategic levers. He instituted widespread cost-cutting measures to get HP back on track, including reducing CSR expenditure. The HP board, however, did not want to let CSR go by the wayside; in fact, it wanted HP to reorganize and restrategize its approach to corporate citizenship.
The case focuses on this strategic transformation from traditional, cost-center CSR to business-aligned social innovation. It outlines the details of the board's approval of the new strategy, and then discusses how HP employees worked to reorganize their CSR activity. The new team, the Office of Global Social Innovation (OGSI), had to devise a pilot project to demonstrate the new approach. The project under consideration was an engagement that would improve the early infant diagnosis process for testing infants for HIV in Kenya—an area virtually unknown to HP. The case asks students to assess the work of the OGSI team thus far, and to put themselves in the shoes of one team member who had to justify the project to HP's leadership.
The case is especially important for demonstrating the most recent shifts across some leading companies regarding how they position CSR, as well as how for-profit leaders can structure partnerships for impact.
After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to: understand current shifts from traditional corporate social responsibility work to social innovation; understand the challenges facing leading companies as they seek to do well (enhance the company's bottom-line performance) by doing good (making social impact); identify best practices for developing partnerships for impact; articulate a project's social impact and how it aligns with a desirable business impact.
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Beena Salim Saji and Paul Ellingstad
The purpose of this paper is to develop a social innovation model and understand the levels of communication of different social actors at different points of a social innovation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a social innovation model and understand the levels of communication of different social actors at different points of a social innovation project (at Hewlett Packard). The paper also looks into the effect of communication networks and power of words in social interaction in social innovation projects.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper defines social innovation in the first part and how it differs from social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility and social business. The research focusses on the data available through the internet and the papers and articles related to social innovation experience of technology companies. A content analysis of the terminology that is used for social innovation projects during innovation process and the articles published will be the primary source for data analysis in the study.
Findings
The study did illuminate the power of certain words that are repeatedly used in e-mails and articles, related to the social innovation which can give researchers an idea about the power of words in social innovation.
Research limitations/implications
It is important for human resource managers and innovation leaders to look at innovation from the social motivational process and more strategic perspective rather than just from the science and technology perspective. The study concludes with the development of a model and partnership communication analysis for successful social innovation projects.
Originality/value
The research will add value to the area of social innovation by looking into the importance of concepts and words used in social innovation. The study is looking into a new perspective of social marketing which is the power of words in a social innovation project.
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Mennatallah Morsy, Paul Trott and Daniel Sunghwan Cho
The new concept of corporate social innovation (CSI) has witnessed a steady growth in the business and management academic world over the past 20 years. Yet its adoption by…
Abstract
Purpose
The new concept of corporate social innovation (CSI) has witnessed a steady growth in the business and management academic world over the past 20 years. Yet its adoption by corporations has been notably slow. This paper aims to operationalize the concept and develop a research agenda for CSI.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review of the current literature in the recent past (1999–2020) has been embraced in this research. The review is based on 40 articles and offers a descriptive and a thematic analysis of the literature.
Findings
The authors demonstrate the development of the concept over time and identify 12 themes to assist in the institutionalization of CSI.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide an enhanced overview of the current state of CSI. The paper shows how a variety of different definitions of corporate social innovation have been used in the business and management literature. The findings provide a unique conceptual framework and a detailed research agenda for scholars seeking to examine CSI.
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Rodrigo Luiz Morais-da-Silva, Andréa Paula Segatto, Gelciomar Simão Justen, Indira Gandhi Bezerra-de-Sousa and Eduardo De-Carli
Social innovation has been attracting attention in the literature and the practice field due to its intention to create social value. However, the social innovation process is…
Abstract
Purpose
Social innovation has been attracting attention in the literature and the practice field due to its intention to create social value. However, the social innovation process is still poorly studied and is marked by several disagreements in the existing models, often built from data coming from developed countries. So, the focus of this study is to answer the following research question: how is the social innovation process configured in a developing context?
Design/methodology/approach
The study investigated three cases of Brazilian social innovation processes through a qualitative approach. The authors also use the institutional levels perspectives to analyse the cases.
Findings
The main findings indicate that the social innovation process comprises five phases and occurs between the micro, meso and macro institutional levels. Besides, the social innovation process relies on the participation of different partners, in a non-sequential process, with the possibility of returning from one stage to another and is evaluated continuously over time.
Practical implications
This study may be useful for social entrepreneurs and their teams in organisations that generate social innovations (such as social enterprises) to understand how well-established initiatives have organised themselves over time. Public policymakers may also use the insights provided to create more favourable environments to create new social innovation initiatives and expand the existing ones.
Originality/value
The characteristics of the social innovation process revealed in this study contributes to the advancement of the area, mainly because it considers the perspective of institutional levels and is based on data from a developing country.