Thesis
The impact of social innovation interventions
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2023
- Thesis identifier
- T16734
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201965296
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Social innovation is an approach or development model that is used across different sectors to develop innovative solutions to a wide range of social phenomena including public policy, empowerment, environmental sustainability, and food security. Substantial resources are allocated by governments, the private sector, philanthropic actors and institutions to promote social innovation, but the heterogeneity of the practices and the complexity of social interventions makes it difficult to generalise the concept and theorise about how it operates. This doctoral research investigates the impact of social innovation interventions at the level of policy and programme interventions and employs a Realist Synthesis, an interpretive approach to evidence-based research. This method is derived from traditional review techniques to evaluate complex social interventions using secondary data, but the approach focuses specifically on causal mechanisms. The realist approach starts with developing programme theories that are guided by the formal theories and suggests propositions about ideal scenarios or how programmes are expected to work. These theories are structured in context-mechanism-outcome configurations to include assumptions about each of these. The method next involves searches for empirical evidence to test and improve these theories; and thus, aims to contribute to the foundational knowledge of the research topic and the improvement of practices, in this case, social innovation (SI). Data was collected through an extensive web search, including academic articles and publicly available evidence on social innovation policies and programmes, without any time or country limitations. A set of inclusion criteria were applied to the initial database resulting in a final set of 269 documents. Coding was supported using NVivo software. Coded documents were scrutinized over a relatively long period of time and the knowledge was synthesised to reveal the hidden mechanisms underlying SI processes. Initial programme theories are refined through a combined discussion and interpretation of the interrelated dimensions, and a final set of theories as well as an illustrative model are presented.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Shaw, Eleanor
- Gök, Abdullah
- Resource Type
- DOI
Relations
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PDF of thesis T16734 | 2023-10-17 | Public | Download |