Stepping up: an empirical analysis of the role of social innovation in response to an economic recession

Categorising organisations as either for-profit or nonprofit is a false dichotomy as existing for-profit firms are becoming more socially conscience while nonprofits are adopting profit-making activities to ensure their viability. This paper conceptualises the array of social practices as a continuum of social innovation and empirically demonstrates variation not captured by legal designation. Using a survey from the US state of North Carolina, this paper examines how organisations across the continuum responded to the 2008 economic recession. Results indicate that more socially innovative organisations responded to the increase in need by increasing environmental, community and employee support.