Institute of Management, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy
Open social innovation has emerged as a pivotal paradigm for addressing grand societal challenges such as climate change, inequality, and global health crises. Unlike traditional open innovation, which is often firm-centric, open social innovation emphasizes collaborative, multi-stakeholder efforts to co-create solutions with a societal impact. This study investigates the unique characteristics and practices of open social innovation by exploring an open social innovation process that was successful during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a comprehensive qualitative analysis of interviews, observations and archival data with many stakeholders involved in the open social innovation process, our findings highlight four key practices of open social innovation: 1) decentralizing external search; 2) flexing existing resources, 3) co-creating value with communities, and 4) combining intellectual property rights with open-source systems. These practices differ significantly from traditional open innovation, particularly in their focus on inclusivity, spontaneity, and shared societal goals. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating how open social innovation transcends firm-centric frameworks, fostering systemic change through voluntary, multi-stakeholder engagement. Moreover, it provides new insights into how such practices can address complex, grand challenges, offering both theoretical and practical implications for innovation management.
