The paper identifies key characteristics of social innovations in Central and Eastern European countries, and factors shaping them. The analysis is based on the database accumulated within the international prize SozialMarie, awarded annually to social innovations since 2005 by Austrian foundation Unruhe (Unrest) and on grant applications submitted in the first call explicitly targeting social innovation support within the ESF in the Czech Republic in 2013.2 The analysis of innovation supply and demand characteristics and interplays is used for recommendations making the support of social innovations (potentially) more effective. In our analysis we looked for the factors shaping social innovation environment and demand in the CEE countries, their common patterns and country specifics, and their development in time. More specifically, the authors’ are interested in immediate motivations (drivers) of social innovation activities. Regarding policy implications, the authors’ want to find out how the social innovation characteristics influence the sustainability and impact of innovation activities and how a systemic policy support can make the impact higher. The paper is structured into six parts. In the first part they summarize diverse approaches to social innovation definition and evaluation which they found relevant for their analysis. In the second and third parts they present the characteristics shaping social innovation demand (eligibility and evaluation criteria applied for project selections) and supply (submitted innovation solutions, their motivations and available innovation capacities). The fourth part combines the supply and demand aspects of the social innovations analyzed to identify their matches or interactions. The fifth part includes more detailed information on innovation characteristics of sample projects, based on an on-line survey. The last part consists of conclusions of their analysis and the related policy recommendations. [Extracted from the authors’ introduction].
Kaderabkova, Anna and Saman, Saeed Moghadam (2013) Evaluations of social innovations : their characteristics and impacts, cross country comparisons and implications for policy support (Paper presented at the international conference Social Frontiers : The next edge of social innovation research, at GCU's London Campus on 14th and 15th November 2013).
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