Social Innovation from the Inside: Considering the “Intrapreneurship” Path

The development of new programs, services, and organizations that exemplify social innovation have provided inspiration and hope to practitioners, advocates, and researchers committed to positive social change. Although there is no single definition of social innovation, there appears to be consensus that social innovation entails the development and application of new solutions to social problems (Phills, Deiglmeier, & Miller, 2008). Some have argued that it has become a must for social workers in this new era (Berzin, 2012; Germak & Singh, 2010). To date, most of the social innovation literature has focused attention on creating and scaling entrepreneurial efforts that create new organizations so that innovative ideas can be implemented and sustained. Although the entrepreneurial approach has resulted in a number of successful social innovation efforts, we argue that it would be an oversight to ignore the need to develop the capacities of existing organizations. Existing human services organizations could provide a complementary platform to stimulate social innovation.