1 Introduction: Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

At the beginning of the new millennium, the United Nations ’ member states agreed to eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a framework for driving progress against poverty and other development challenges. They agreed to “spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty ” (United Nations, General Assembly 2000, p. 4).

In 2015, the United Nations ’ member states adopted in the General Assembly a new framework, “Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ” (United Nations, General Assembly 2015). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set a new global agenda for more inclusive and sustainable development and growth for the next 15 years. Unlike the MDGs, their successors are an integrated set of universal goals, applying to all countries (not only developing countries ) and aiming at mobilizing all stakeholders (especially the business community). The 17 Goals are comprehensive in scope, covering poverty eradication, food security , health, access to education , gender parity, water and sanitation, energy , economic growth and job creation, peace, climate change and numerous other aspects of social and environmental sustainability (see Table 1). The SDGs explicitly recognize interlinkages among the goals.

Table 1 Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations, General Assembly 2015, p. 14)
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There are various success factors in meeting these ambitious objectives in all countries. The following three factors are mentioned throughout the document: First, the success depends on good governance within each country. Countries have to take ownership of the outcome and mobilize and effectively use domestic resources (United Nations, General Assembly 2015, p. 29). Second , close and continuous collaboration, e.g. through multi-stakeholder partnerships, are needed to mobilize and share knowledge as well as technology and financial resources, and ensure shared accountability (p. 27). Third, private business activities and investments are needed to solve sustainable development challenges (p. 29).

International initiatives and organizations such as the corporate sustainability initiative UN Global Compact , the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the CEO-led organization World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) also recognize the important role of private businesses to take actions that advance societal goals and give guidance for business action on the SDGs (GRI et al. 2015).

Private businesses offer products and services, create jobs which generate incomes, build infrastructure and support technology transfer through their operations, global value chains and investments–just to name a few activities. These activities are often the root cause of environmental and social problems. However, increasingly corporations are driving sustainable development with their innovative products, services and business models . As Nidumolu and his colleagues observed: “[S]mart companies now treat sustainability as innovation’s new frontier.” (Nidumolu et al. 2009, p. 4).

The United Nations in the SDGs explicitly note the importance of creativity and innovation to make our society more sustainable:

67. Private business activity, investment and innovation are major drivers of productivity, inclusive economic growth and job creation. We acknowledge the diversity of the private sector , ranging from micro-enterprises to cooperatives to multinationals. We call upon all businesses to apply their creativity and innovation to solving sustainable development challenges . (United Nations, General Assembly 2015, p. 29)

How can business actors foster creativity and innovation ? In the last years, discussions on innovation have also led attention to the closely related topic entrepreneurship . Entrepreneurship is seen as enabler, driver and empowering tool for sustainable development . Both terms—innovation and entrepreneurship—are explicitly mentioned either directly in one of the Sustainable Development Goals or in their targets see Table 2.

Table 2 Innovation and entrepreneurship in the SDGs (United Nations, General Assembly 2015)a
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The emphasis in the context of the SDGs lies on innovations enriched with a societal goal. These kind of innovation are also known as social innovation . In the following chapters, the concept of social innovation and social entrepreneurship will be discussed.

2 Private Businesses as Drivers and Initiators for (Social) Innovation

Innovation is one key for business success and sustainable value creation . Based on the work of Schumpeter, innovation can focus on different types of innovation, scope of change and how it was created (Osburg 2013). Typically, four types of innovations are describes: product innovation, service innovation, process innovation (i.e. efficient production processes with less resources and emissions) and market innovation (i.e. creating new markets for social solutions). Their scope of change can vary between radical or so called disruptive innovation, incremental innovation and reapplied innovations. Innovations can be invented in-house (closed innovation) or the knowledge from inside and outside of the organization can be used to accelerate innovation (open innovation).

The concept of social innovation has increasingly gained attention amongst practitioners (see conferences such as Social Innovation Summit 2018), in academica (publications such as Franz et al. 2012; Moulaert et al. 2013; Osburg and Schmidpeter 2013) and politics. The European Union (EU) has formulated a social innovation strategy as part of the larger EU 2020 Innovation Union framework. According to the European Commission Bureau of European Policy Advisors social innovations “are innovations that are social in both their ends and their means. Specifically, […] social innovations [are] new ideas (products, services and models ) that simultaneously meet social needs (more effectively than alternatives) and create new social relationships or collaborations. They are innovations that are not only good for society but also enhance society’s capacity to act” (European Commission 2011, p. 9). The focus lies on the results and the importance on collaboration between stakeholders .

In Table 3 selected definitions on (corporate) social innovations are listed.

Table 3 (Corporate) social innovation definitionsa
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All these definitions have in common, that social innovations have an outcome to increase well-being. What kind of outcome is often not specified. Types of solutions can be for instance new products, services, processes and/or business models , such as microfinance, micro-insurance or off-grid energy solutions. It can also be a social movement such as urban gardening or suggestions to change the welfare system like the unconditional basic income (Russo and Mueller 2013).

Some of these definitions underline both, the outcome and the process. Mulgan (2006) describes four stages in the process of social innovation: (1) generating ideas by understanding needs and identifying potential solutions, (2) taking one promising idea and testing it in practice, e.g. through prototyping and piloting, (3) assessing, scaling up, and diffusing the idea, e.g. by finding organizations who support have the ability and resources to scale up, and (4) continuously learning and adapting the idea. Entrepreneurial principles and (process) methods can be applied to find new solutions for societal problems. Murray et al. (2010) mention the importance of participation and involvement of the interests of various stakeholders such as producers, suppliers, and users for a successful innovation process.

The drivers and initiators for social innovations can be any organization or person such as for-profit and non-for profit organizations, governmental or societal organizations or entrepreneurs. (Social) entrepreneurs as well as intrapreneurs—persons, teams and departments within corporations applying entrepreneurial methods—are seen as the main actors driving social change through innovation (Saul 2011).

3 Social Entrepreneurs Driving Social Change

The field of research on social entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship has recently emerged amongst practitioners and academics (Danko et al. 2011; Cukier et al. 2011; Kraus et al. 2014). International organizations such as Ashoka, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship , and the Skoll Foundation are funding and catalyzing social enterprises . Their focus lies on the impact and innovation potential of social entrepreneurs . Ashoka (2018) for instance defines social entrepreneurs as “individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social, cultural, and environmental challenges. They are ambitious and persistent – tackling major issues and offering new ideas for systems-level change.”.

Same as with the definitions on social innovation , various definitions of concept of social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurs exist. The majority of authors mention in their definitions the purpose of creating social value , some authors additionally stress the social transformational impact of the solutions and/or some authors also emphasis the personal characteristics of social entrepreneurs such as the person’s social mission and ability in identifying opportunities to create social value (see Table 4).

Table 4 Definitions and descriptions of social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneursa
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The organizational form, in which the social entrepreneur acts, can vary from mission-driven for-profit organizations to non-profit organizations . Researchers criticize that connections and boundaries of research field of social entrepreneurship with other fields such as entrepreneurship and social movements remain unclear (Mair and Martí 2006; Dacin et al. 2011; Abu-Saifan 2012).

Considering the ambitious goals and targets of the SDGs , it is crucial that all countries foster and support social value creation of any persons, organizations or networks such as social entrepreneurs , mission-driven for-profit organizations and non-for-profit organizations or multi-stakeholder partnerships. Therefore, it is necessary to have a profound understanding of the nature of social value creation. How can social value be created? How can entrepreneurial mechanisms be employed to foster social innovations and sustain social value? How can social value creation be assessed and measured (Kroeger and Weber 2015)?

4 Conclusion

The SDGs give an overview of the world’s development challenges of the present and the coming decades and set a new global agenda for more inclusive and sustainable development and growth. These challenges also represent opportunities for social innovations and the creation of scalable and financially self-sustaining solutions by businesses and (social) entrepreneurs (Torres-Rahman et al. 2015). Examples of solutions to social and ecological challenges are for instance providing low-income communities with access to affordable, quality products and services in areas such as water and sanitation, energy , health, education and finance. New business models can meet customer demands by providing solutions and thereby create opportunities for low-income people as employees, suppliers and distributors.

To achieve the SDGs , projects have yet to scale or achieve systemic change (Nelson et al. 2015). This requires that businesses continuously design or reshape their business models towards the concept of social value . In this context, multi-stakeholder partnerships between for-profit organizations , non-profit organizations , (social) entrepreneurs, governmental organizations , financial institutions and other actors have still a huge potential.