“What are the Outcomes of Innovativeness within Social Entrepreneurship? The Relationship between Innovative Orientation and Social Enterprise Economic Performance”

Taking a Schumpeterian perspective on social entrepreneurship, this paper studies the relation between innovative orientation, profit, and turnover within social enterprises. A sample of Finnish social enterprises was studied principally by means of multiple regression analyses. The results highlight that the innovative orientation of the enterprises had no significant relationship to their operating profit or turnover. Finnish social enterprises, by law, must operate according to commercial principles. Our results suggest that their profitability is not generated through innovative activity. The findings also suggest that innovation within social enterprises may generally differ from and/or serve other purposes than innovation within traditional enterprises. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]