Lesson 1. Connection between social entrepreneurship, social innovation and seniors

Today, from a purely conceptual point of view, given the understanding of social innovation, there are different frameworks that focus either on social innovation as a process (Mumford, 2002), its scale and dimension (Nicholls & Murdock, 2012), the measurement of its impact (Westley & Antadze, 2012), or the transformation of power relations and inequalities in society it provides (Moualert et al., 2014).

A definition of social innovation as ‘new ideas that respond to unmet social needs and work’ (Mulgan et al., 2004) coexists with much broader definitions such as, ‘an intervention initiated by social actors to respond to an aspiration, satisfy a need, provide a solution or seize an opportunity for action to change social relations, transform a framework for action or propose new cultural orientations’ (CRISES, 2011).

However, it seems to be accepted, in a broader perspective, that social innovation comes from specific fields and is correlated to 3 main fields:

• the field of social entrepreneurship,
• the field of social economy,
• the activist field of social movements.

The work of various authors shows that senior citizens are often very involved in social issues, so they can also effectively develop social innovation activities to meet the social need they themselves have identified, and on which they want to develop an entrepreneurial activity. There is a strong interaction between entrepreneurship, innovation and senior citizens, the basis of which is based on a social dimension.

In order to maintain close links between the three dimensions, studies have shown that social entrepreneurship requires creativity and innovation in order to develop, not to make a profit at any price, but to be useful and give meaning to its activity. Senior citizens have a role to play; indeed, their history, background and experience are significant assets for innovating, developing and creating. For example, they are involved in the development of fatlabs and incubators, and know how to obtain micro-credit. These initiatives help to promote the entrepreneurial vocation of older adults, encouraging them to start their own businesses or business ideas.

Thus, the actors of social innovation are mainly the “producers” of social innovation, such as cooperatives, social entrepreneurs, informal groups, etc. Senior citizens have their place in this field.

In the context of social entrepreneurship and innovation, which we could also call socio-organisational, there seems to be a “facilitating” vector for seniors. If we offer senior-friendly propositions, research shows that seniors can benefit from the activation of networks and their past business experience.