Design for social enterprises: a study of design-innovation ecosystem development framework for social enterprises

Abstract

Design not only critically enables innovation, lending businesses a competitive advantage and significantly differentiating them within the marketplace, but also provides a means of addressing environmental and social sustainability challenges. Therefore, design academics and practitioners have become increasingly interested in design’s impact on social enterprises, which pursue both economic and social value creation. However, thus far, design has performed a limited role in social enterprises, mostly contributing at the operational level to improving processes and activities rather than functioning at the system level to facilitate economic prosperity and competitiveness in service of long-term sustainability. This research proposed a strategic framework can cultivate design-innovation ecosystems (DInEs), enabling social enterprises to activate and strengthen their approach to design. This process began with exploring the current role of design within social enterprises and observing existing design support practices (strategies, funding and programmes) targeted at social enterprises. The insights gleaned informed the recommendations for developing DInEs for social enterprises, which, in the context of the framework, guides stakeholders regarding various design utilisations (strategies, funding and programmes) that incorporate different aspects of support (foundations, catalysts and actions), enabling different stakeholders (e.g. social enterprise support bodies, design support bodies, universities and governments) to understand of the roles and impacts of design on social enterprise growth at both the systemic and operational level. The study contributes to theoretical and practical understandings of the research object by introducing structural units and methods for cultivating an environment within which design can be utilised strategically and systemically to enhance the long-term sustainability of social enterprises. These findings identify critical components of DInEs, enabling design academics to further refine DInE theories and provide stakeholders with a roadmap for fostering productive DInEs. These outcomes can benefit policymakers, social enterprise and design support practitioners that want to strategically engage design to support social enterprises.