Does Social Innovation Matter for Government? An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

Social innovation scholars and sociologists regard shocks and crises that impact heavily on social systems as opportunities for self-reflection and as windows of opportunity for the emergence of new ideas and possibilities. In this sense, the social systems recovery in the new normal post-Covid19 era can open new opportunities for the spreading of the transformational impact of social innovation. This will concern also public administration organizations since social innovation can also be seen as a particular perspective on how the public sector should be reformed. Hence, social innovation should be a topic of particular interest for public administration scholars. The aim of this exploratory study is to investigate whether and how social innovation has been considered in the top academic public administration journals. The study confirms that the topic is still underexplored in this literature and highlights some possible research directions that can contribute to bridge this gap. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.