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Purpose The importance of innovations in business management is a widely accepted hypothesis. Lately the research on innovation has widened to include consideration of the impact of social networks on the innovation. This paper aims to contribute to research on this approach by suggesting a framework for studying the social aspects of economic innovations. Design/methodology/approach The paper discusses economic innovation as a product of organizational competencies, highlighting the importance of social network. Findings This paper has three goals: we clarify the concept of economic innovation, we present the essential questions for studying the economic innovation process, and we present a proposal for an empirical approach and address problems in collecting data about economic innovations. Originality/value The paper opens a new, socio‐psychological approach to studying the innovation processes. It proposes a holistic approach to the phenomenon by combining these with the material aspects of an organization. The paper provides a scientific framework for a new research program.
Taatila et al. (Sat,) studied this question.