Social innovation in emerging economies: A national systems of innovation based approach

- Social innovation are enacted through bottom-up learning processes in emerging economies.
- Public-Private Partnerships are important vehicles for social innovation.
- Social entrepreneurship can overcome institutional voids and asymmetries in emerging economies.
- Social entrepreneurship play a pivotal role and can transform national systems of innovation.
- Learning and developing capabilities through partnerships are critical for social innovation.

Drawing insights from the national systems of innovation and social entrepreneurship literature, this article examines how national systems of innovation (NSI) and social entrepreneurship interact to generate social innovation in emerging economies. Through the examination of a case study of the Emergency and Management Research Institute (EMRI), a public private partnership (PPP), social innovation is found to be an interactive bottom-up collective learning process where EMRI has developed a new model of social innovation. It also highlights the complex context in which social innovation occurs. As a boundary-spanning activity across the public and private sectors, the interactive learning process and associated capability building for social innovation has provided a catalyst for wider social reform and for the development and redesigning of NSI for social innovation-led value creation in emerging economies. Through such an approach, the EMRI has overcome the institutional voids and developed legitimacy through social innovation tailored to the local context; it thereby represents an alternative approach to the often top-down NSI organisations of developed economies.