A long and winding road: The hard graft of scaling social change in complex systems
Citation:
John Healy, Jeffrey Hughes, Gemma Donnelly-Cox, Amanda Shantz, A long and winding road: The hard graft of scaling social change in complex systems, Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 21, e00455, 2024, 1 - 7Download Item:
Abstract:
Advice abounds on how to implement large-scale social change, much of which emphasizes a simplistic linear process, led by a heroic central actor. Rigorous case studies have shown that social change is far more complex: it is a reciprocal, iterative, and adaptive process, with multiple stakeholders who work backstage in networked, committed teams. Despite this, the myth of the social entrepreneur as a transformative change maker capable of scaling innovations to a societal level, still holds sway over social innovation support programmes and business school curricula. Using illustrative examples of successful efforts of large-scale social change across three of the most pressing international social challenges: access to medicines, the integration of migrant populations, and reorganizing social care models, we illustrate how conceptualizing social change as driven by iconic individuals is often counter-productive in terms of achieving impact at a societal level. Based on these analyses, we present five insights which illustrate how the mythology of social entrepreneurship and simplistic scaling concepts are often contrary to the practices employed within successful efforts to bring about social impact. Three counteracting principles for those leading, evaluating and funding innovative change efforts within complex systems are discussed and contrasted with the pervasive mythology of social entrepreneurship and linear scaling processes.
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http://people.tcd.ie/gdnnllyc
Author: Donnelly Cox, Gemma
Type of material:
Journal ArticleSeries/Report no:
Journal of Business Venturing Insights;21;
e00455;
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Full text availableSubject (TCD):
Identities in Transformation , Inclusive Society , Complex systems , Entrepreneurship , Nonprofit organisations , SCALING , Social Change , Social InnovationDOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2024.e00455ISSN:
ISSN 2352-6734Metadata
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