Abstract
Social initiatives, developed within or outside public organizations, are an important driver of innovation in the public sector. Decentralization allows experimentation at the local level. When proven effective experiments are scaled, more residents can benefit from the innovation. It also avoids unnecessary waste of public resources by not reinventing the wheel each time. However, scaling social initiatives is challenging in practice, and (academic) knowledge on this is scarce. Therefore, 'How do social initiatives manage to scale?" is the central question of this dissertation.
The dissertation consists of a broad literature review and three empirical studies focusing on initiatives in the areas of mental health, debt and labour participation in the highly decentralized social sector in the Netherlands. These initiatives are often difficult to commercialize, operate in or just outside public organizations and are (almost) entirely dependent on public funding.
The systematic literature review shows that the purpose of scaling - increasing impact - is the result of two main strategic choices in scaling: the direction of scaling and the organizational form, which are influenced by actor characteristics such as ambition and entrepreneurial skills, and by environmental support. The literature review provides a framework for follow-up studies in different disciplines.
The sub-study of actor characteristics shows that entrepreneurial skills are more important than a central position (read: within a public organization) when focusing on effectiveness. Contrary to expectations, this is also true for mobilizing stakeholders. However, entrepreneurial skills are a condition and not a guarantee for successful scaling, because scaling happens in interaction with the environment. Sometimes initiators join forces in this process.
The exploratory study on the role of accelerators in the public sector context shows that this concept must be understood in a different way than in the private sector. Accelerators occur in temporary collaboration forms and focus not only on initiators but also on policy advisors and professionals. Their contribution to the scaling process is mainly the provision of networks and is difficult to measure. The study shows that accelerators can play a coordinating role in scaling and connecting networks. Further research is needed to better understand what this role looks like and how it relates to other roles.
This dissertation shows that there is potential to scale good initiatives, but in the Dutch social sector this is often done on an ad hoc basis and little attention is paid to effectiveness. A shared vision of scaling and the various roles in it would be a first step towards a sustainable ecosystem for scaling.
Original language | English |
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Qualification | Doctor of Philosophy |
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Award date | 13 Dec 2024 |
Place of Publication | Utrecht |
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Publication status | Published - 13 Dec 2024 |
Keywords
- social initiatives
- local experiments
- scaling
- entrepreneurial skills
- institutional environment
- ecosystem
- accelerator
- social sector
- public innovation