- Data, Statistics and AI for Well-Being of People and Organisations
- A cura di Luigi Fabbris, Alberto Franci, Pietro Renzi
Social innovation in non-profit organisations: Evidence from Italian microdata
- Damiano Angotzi
- Francesco Salate Santone
- Giuseppe Terzo
- Giuseppe Notarstefano
- © 2026 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1.5
According to a growing body of empirical literature, non-profit organisations (NPOs) play a crucial role in fostering societal welfare (e.g., Terzo, 2021; Terzo et al., 2023). Definitely, they represent fertile ground for generating social innovation, which is the ability to create impactful solutions that address societal needs, which are becoming increasingly changing and heterogeneous due to ongoing economic and socio-demographic transformations. A growing body of both theoretical and empirical literature investigates the determinants of social innovation within the non-profit sector. This literature (e.g., Choi & Majumdar, 2014; Jaskyte, 2013; Krasnopolskaya & Meijs, 2019; Ranucci & Lee, 2019; Tortia et al., 2020) highlights a complex interplay of factors, including the motivation of members, property rights, governance rules, and the level of volunteer involvement, complemented by a strategic market orientation, a strong human capital base, and the cultivation of relational networks, all of which are understood to be critical for fostering innovation in this field. This study aims to extend this literature by providing an empirical analysis of a large sample of Italian NPOs on the factors driving the choice to launch social innovation projects. The main novelty of this work lies in the adoption of a unique dataset, which integrates data from various sources, enabling us to carry out an in-depth investigation of several determinants of social innovation, beyond the organisations’ structural characteristics, such as the involvement of volunteers, the presence and density of stakeholder networks, and the market orientation.
- Keywords:
- Non-profit organisations,
- Third Sector,
- Social Innovation,
- Local development,
Centro Studi Guglielmo Tagliacarne, Italy
Centro Studi Guglielmo Tagliacarne, Italy
LUMSA, Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0003-3954-1464
LUMSA, Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-4841-921X
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- Choi, N., Majumdar, S. (2014). Social innovation: Towards a conceptualisation. In Technology and Innovation for Social Change (pp. 7-34). New Delhi: Springer India. DOI: 10.1007/978-81-322-2071-8_2
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- Krasnopolskaya, I., Meijs, L. (2019). The effect of enabling factors on social innovation in Russian non-profit organisations. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 39(5/6), pp. 447-463. DOI: 10.1108/ijssp-09-2018-0140
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Informazioni sul capitolo
Titolo del capitolo
Social innovation in non-profit organisations: Evidence from Italian microdata
Autori
Damiano Angotzi, Francesco Salate Santone, Giuseppe Terzo, Giuseppe Notarstefano
Lingua
Inglese
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1.5
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Informazioni bibliografiche
Titolo del libro
Data, Statistics and AI for Well-Being of People and Organisations
Curatori
Luigi Fabbris, Alberto Franci, Pietro Renzi
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
420
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1
ISBN Print
979-12-215-1061-4
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-1062-1
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-1063-8
Collana
Applied Statistics Series