The challenges and risks of innovation in social entrepreneurship

Innovation is key for social enterprises. It is deemed to be the feature that distinguishes them most clearly from charities. Indeed, the Social Enterprise Coalition, in its response to the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills Science and Innovation Strategy Consultation claimed that social enterprise is an ―inherently innovative business model.‖ Innovation was the subject of a series of Office of the Third Sector position papers by Leadbeater (2007), Nicholls, A (2007), Nicholls, J. (2007), Aiken (2007) and Westall (2007). The National Endowment for Science and Technology (Parker 2009) and the Young Foundation (Mulgan, et al. 2007) have also engaged in this field with significant reviews of the literature and exhortations to all sectors of society to realise the (implicit) value of innovation to society . Further, ―…not to innovate is to die‖ according to Christopher Freeman (1997, p266) in his famous study of economics of innovation.