Innovatieklimaat en ondernemingszin (KB-16-001.05-003)

Our understanding of innovations and what it takes to innovate changes with our views on societal change and economic development. Initially innovation was believed to emerge within the research and development divisions of big organisations. Often it was indicated with the slogan making better things instead of making things better (the Philips advertisement). The focus shifted to open innovations that emerged in the dynamics of network exchanges of knowledge and strategies. Innovations were seen as a product of the network society. An extra dimension was added when innovations were primarily conceived as smart and efficient ways to use resources. Recently the focus has been put on open organisational innovations that would lead to new skills and capabilities of entrepreneurship. The new focus on social innovation adds a new and very interesting dimension to this evolutionary development of conceptualising innovation. Although there is no consensus on its definition, social innovation can be seen as the result of people to people interactions changing familiar structures. Seen in this way innovations do not occur within organisations, but on the fringe of organisations and their societal environment. It’s the face to face interactions and mechanisms that yield innovations and not the networking and interactions of organisational structures. Entrepreneurs using social media and step by step changing their passive customers in a community of active shareholders (sometimes designated as prosumers) are doing well. Active citizens who challenge organisations to be responsible and accountable at risk of their reputation have more success if they use social media. The stories that are created in this twofold relationship between people in and outside the formal systems of society are retweeted and twxxx-ed in nowadays society. This project adopts this perspective on innovation and focuses on the informalities resulting from face to face interactions between people, partly occurring in social media hubs.