The social innovation Momentum: a qualitative analysis of governance and funding processes

Social innovation projects are enablers of social wellbeing and value in communities, although such relationship has received little attention from the academia. Taking into account the social value for the communities, this paper aims to explore social innovation processes regarding the decision-making processes, in particular the governance and funding of innovative initiatives. This study aims to explore how governance and funding decisions impact on the process of social innovation and enhance social value creation. Through qualitative research methodologies, a multi case study of five social innovation projects named as ES+ Initiatives (innovative initiatives with high entrepreneurship potential) was used. These are Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship projects of innovative value, with a strong social, economic and environmental impact. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, with five professionals involved in the projects undertaking coordination and management roles. Content analysis was performed using NVivo 12 software in order to identify and better understand the effect of the analysis dimension on the projects under study. Our results suggest that new forms of governance and financing have contributed to the emergence of new social innovation projects.