Falling stars when doing social: case studies of social start-ups

The purpose of this paper is to provide new insights into mechanisms for successful implementation of social innovation and survival of social start-ups. Despite the increasing interest in the social dimension of sustainability-oriented innovations and the recognition of new firms among key drivers of innovation, social start-ups are still understudied in the literature. Aiming at a comprehensive understanding of challenges, tools and practices carried out by social start-ups, the research employs a multiple case study for theory development. We selected six Italian innovative start-ups having an explicit “social vocation” and we collected data from interviews to people directly involved in the social innovation process and archival documents. The case studies were then analysed to search for patterns of mechanisms of social start-ups to develop SI and successfully reach the scaling up phase, while avoiding a possible failure. Results show that social start-ups are successful in their innovation process when focusing on knowledge sharing and identity formation. They need to rely both on communities (e.g. through web platforms or direct relations with the institutions of the social system) and collaboration in R&D projects with single institutions (e.g. universities and research centres) to sustain their innovative ideas, develop their role within the wider society (especially in terms of better awareness of social innovation meaning and impact) and build their relational capital. The results contribute to enrich the field of research on social innovation by studying mechanisms and challenges in the context of start-ups, recognised as a key actor contributing to the sustainable development of innovation. Moreover, managerial implications are mainly in providing a reference for innovation managers, social entrepreneurs and other stakeholders such as policy makers and venture capitalists interested in understanding the most suitable practices to be carried out and stakeholders to involve in order to increase social value and carry out SI until the phase of scaling up.