This paper compares the entrepreneurial and innovative performance of three non-profit organizations: a humanitarian NGO, an employment coop and a community association.
We first examine four dimensions of innovation: the services they provide and the management tools they use as studied by social entrepreneurship; their community and their social impact as analyzed by the social innovation movement.
Grounded in these case studies, we then identify four levels of innovation connecting and structuring these four dimensions together: adaptation of âmeans to an endâ, âcommunity mix of means and endsâ, âopening of the bordersâ of the organization and âback to economicsâ. These transitions participate in what we identify as an upward spiral bridging the gap between social entrepreneurship and social innovation.