Pro-Innovative Orientation of
Polish Social Enterprises: The Empirical Perspective
Agata Sudolska and Monika Chodorek
Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Gagarina 13a, Torun, Poland
Keywords: Social Enterprise, Innovations, Pro-innovative Orientation.
Abstract Contemporary times require an entrepreneurial approach to social problems. As the consequence social
enterprises have emerged as a new type of organization which despite its non-profit character is treated as a
fully entrepreneurial organization. As social enterprises adopt business principles while providing social
goods or services, it has to develop an orientation that enables not only to survive, but also to compete in the
contemporary environment. The paper is an attempt to contribute to the research in the field of social
enterprises activities by examining their attitudes towards innovations. The main purpose of the paper is an
attempt to assess pro-innovative orientation of Polish social enterprises. The paper addresses two tasks. The
first part of the paper provides short theoretical overview of the idea and nature of social enterprise. As the
theoretical analysis presented in the paper is exemplified with the empirical study, the second part of the
paper presents the research findings which indicate the manifestations of social enterprises pro-innovative
orientation. Based on the conducted research, we attempt to identify how social enterprises understand
innovations, what kind of innovations they introduce. Finally, we attempt to connect the fact of creating
innovations with pro-innovative behaviors of social enterprise employees.
1 INTRODUCTION
Social enterprises have appeared as a new significant
phenomenon responding the need to introduce an
entrepreneurial approach to solving social problems.
Despite the lack of universal definition of social
enterprise, the term is increasingly used to describe
the organizations that are created specifically to
pursue social goals (Thomson and Doherty 2006;
Defourny and Nyssens, 2008). Social enterprises are
characterized not only by sociality, but also by
market and innovation orientation (Nichols and Cho,
2006; Weerawardena and Sullivan Mort, 2012).
With the increasing interest in social enterprises
concept, considerable attention has been placed on
their nature and role for the society. However,
although social innovations are said to be innovative
because of their nature, the issue concerning their
pro-innovative orientation and innovations created
by this type of entity has received limited attention.
Thus we suggest that there is a need for an in-depth
examination of this issue. Accordingly, in this paper
we look at the aspects related to pro-innovative
approach and attitude towards all kinds of novelty in
social enterprise operating in Poland. Throughout
the paper we refer mostly to a social cooperative as
the most common form of a social enterprise in
Poland. Following Weerawardena and Sullivan Mort
(2012) we assume that social enterprises operating in
highly competitive environment tend to adopt an
innovative posture in order to acquire needed
resources and cover their costs. Bearing in mind the
uncertainty concerning social enterprises financial
situation (revenues coming from differentiate
sources), we argue that they need to adopt
entrepreneurial posture which, among other, involve
pro-innovative orientation.
Given the fact that several authors agree on the
view that nowadays enhancing any organization’s
ability to create innovations seem to be an essential
process for its success, survival and renewal as well
as an important way for achieving advantages over
competitors (Dess and Lumpkin, 2005; Kaplan and
Warren, 2010), in our paper we search for at the
manifestations of such activities in social enterprises
operating in Poland.
The paper consists of two parts: the theoretical
grounding and the empirical research. The
theoretical part, first of all, outlines the concept of
social enterprise and its pro-innovative orientation.
132
Sudolska, A. and Chodorek, M.
Pro-Innovative Orientation of Polish Social Enterprises: The Empirical Perspective.
DOI: 10.5220/0006037901320139
In Proceedings of the 8th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (IC3K 2016) - Volume 3: KMIS, pages 132-139
ISBN: 978-989-758-203-5
Copyright
c
2016 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
The empirical part of the paper presents the
manifestations of social enterprises pro-innovative
orientation. It also discusses how the innovations
introduced in analyzed social enterprises influence
their employees’ pro-innovative behaviors. As the
outcome of the conducted research we provide social
enterprises managers with the knowledge concerned
the activities in the field of innovations carried out
by other entities from this sector. We believe that
our findings provide also managerial implications
referring to enhancing employees commitment to
creating innovations.
2 THE CONCEPT OF SOCIAL
ENTERPRISE
Social enterprise idea has emerged as an answer to
several complex issues facing contemporary world.
Due to its focus on providing benefits to different
groups in society, social enterprise is perceived as
ideal for addressing the global concerns of
environment, healthcare, education, economic
growth and poverty alleviation (Akinyemi, Dilyard,
Anderson and Schroeder, 2013).
Due to diversity of approaches to describe the
nature of social enterprise, the term is used in
different ways in various European countries. Based
on the Social Business Initiative document prepared
by the European Commission (2011), we define
social enterprise as a business in the social economy
whose main objective is to have a social impact
rather than make a profit for their owners or
shareholders.
The nature of social enterprise combines two
attributes. The first concerns entrepreneurship and
the second sociality. Entrepreneurship aspect refers
to conducting an activity of economic character and
thus creating value for the market. This attribute
requires being innovative and effective, because
without innovativeness and effectiveness we can’t
speak of entrepreneurship. On the other hand, the
aspect concerning social issues directly refers to the
mission of social enterprises that is preventing social
exclusion through occupational and economic
activation of particular groups (Hausner and
Lauriusz, 2008, p. 9).
The European Commission applies the term
'social enterprise' to embrace three types of
organizations. First are those, for who the social
objective of the common good is the reason for the
commercial activity. Second are those, where profits
are mainly reinvested with a view to achieving this
social objective. And the third group involve those,
where the method of organisation or ownership
system reflects the enterprise's mission, using
democratic or participatory principles or focusing on
social justice.
In considering the issue of social enterprise
nature, it is necessary to point out three objectives
that a social enterprise is to reach. Firstly, every
social enterprise has a mission concerning the help
for the disadvantaged people who want to integrate
with the society. The second objective that a social
enterprise has to reach concerns the need to generate
profits in order to survive on the market and be able
to carry out its mission. Obviously in case of social
enterprises the desire for the financial success is
secondary, but they need to be profitable to survive.
Although they focus on meeting social needs and
stimulating social change, they have to find different
resources (human resources, capital, knowledge etc.)
for their business (Santos, 2012). The final objective
refers to the ‘political’ field. The reason for social
enterprises existence is also to show that local
authorities implement a social policy in the region.
Taking into account the aforementioned, we can
say that the term “social enterprise” is very broad
and encompasses a lot of issues. The fact that it
combines the features of business and non-
governmental organization as well as accomplishes
both social and financial goals suggests that social
enterprise is of a hybrid nature. Moreover, nowadays
social enterprises are no longer perceived as
charities. They are the organizations having
sustainable business models that aim at long-term
survival, are profitable and thus deliver social value.
3 PRO-INNOVATIVE
ORIENTATION OF SOCIAL
ENTERPRISE
3.1 The Nature of Innovation
Recent years have seen an increased interest in the
issues related to organizations’ ability to innovate.
All contemporary organizations are supposed to
make several efforts aimed at finding new
opportunities to enhance their effectiveness in the
challenging environment. Caring out the activities
focused on supporting any kind of novelty is equated
with fostering pro-innovative orientation of an
organization. Implementing pro-innovative
orientation refers to development, assimilation and
utilization of new knowledge as well as finding new
Pro-Innovative Orientation of Polish Social Enterprises: The Empirical Perspective
133
opportunities and creating the atmosphere favorable
to all kinds innovations (Isaken, Lauer, Ekval and
Britz, 2000-2001, Sudolska 2012). The reference
literature presents wide range of definitions of
innovations. In general innovation is any change
appearing in different areas of the organization’s
activities, developed in or outside the organization,
that introduces progress while compared to the
existing state (Damanpour 1996). What is of great
importance, innovation represents newness to
particular organization that is concerned. In other
words, it means novelty to the organization itself
rather than in absolute sense (Osborne and Flynn,
1997; De Dreu, 2006). Another relevant issue
concerns the fact that innovation is both a process
and an outcome. Baregheh, Rowley and Sambrook
(2009) who have conducted a comprehensive
analysis of several innovation definitions argue that
innovation is a multi-stage process in which
organizations transform their ideas into new or
improved products, processes in order to advance
and differentiate themselves successfully in the
market (Baregheh et al. 2009). Finally, what seems
to be of great significance, innovation involves
discontinuous change resulting in transformation of
organizational capabilities (Osborne and Flynn,
1997; Baregheh et al., 2009).
The complexity of innovation nature combined
with the variations in the way it occurs in different
organizations results in difficulty to provide clear-
cut typology of innovations. Innovation is
multifaceted and can take many forms. However,
based on extensive literature review, we assume that
the main innovation types comprise the following:
technological product and process innovations
(TPP), organizational and marketing innovations,
social innovations and business models (paradigm)
innovations (Damanpour 1996; Oslo Manual, 2005;
Bessant and Tidd, 2011). Certainly, introducing
above mentioned types of innovations is observed
both in firms and social enterprises, although in case
of social enterprise we observe organizational and
social innovations more often than other types.
3.2 Pro-innovative Orientation of
Social Enterprise
While considering how innovative social enterprises
are we may take the view from the perspective of
other sector. From such perspective all social
enterprises are innovative. It refers the fact that
social enterprises are practicing innovative ways of
doing business through introducing social issues into
their business models. On the other hand, if viewed
from within the sector, then some of them are just
imitating others or being pressured by their
environment rather than aiming to adapt or change
current conditions (Westal, 2007). However,
discussing the issue we need to remember that in the
literature innovation is also defined as intentional
introduction and application within a group or
organization of ideas, processes, products or
procedures, new to the relevant unit of adoption,
designed to significantly benefit the individual, the
group, the organization or the society (West and
Farr, 1990; De Dreu, 2006). Therefore any novelty
appearing in social enterprises deserves attention
and appreciation.
While discussing social enterprise pro-innovative
orientation, we need to remember that this type of
entity is characterized by high level of autonomy.
Due to this, social enterprises are focused on
searching for new initiatives and solutions.
Moreover, as they want to survive in highly unstable
environment, they are forced to seek for all kind of
novelty which may result as innovation. This pro-
innovative orientation is also a consequence of
another characteristics of social enterprise nature
taking economic risk, strongly stimulating creativity
and openness to change.
Pro-innovative orientation of an organization
involves wide spectrum of components. Among
pertinent issues fostering organization’s pro-
innovative orientation the relevant literature points
out: entity strategy mission clarity, leadership,
clarity of innovation process, organizational culture
and values, people’s skills, focus on employees
growth and development, challenging and
interesting employee tasks, employee feeling of
autonomy, positive interpersonal exchange,
intellectual stimulation by debating and discussing
new ideas, involving employees in new projects
allows them to present their creativity and skills in
some novel areas, freedom, trust/openness of
employees (Ekvall 1996, Isaken et. al, 2000-2001;
Isaken and Lauer, 2002; Loewe and Dominiquini,
2006; Hunter, Bedell and Mumford, 2007).
The outcomes of pro-innovative orientation of
any kind of organization are different types of
innovations. As highlighted by Westal (2007),
innovation in social enterprise refers to new products
of new qualities, new methods of organization
and/or production, new production factors such as
atypical employment and involvement in
governance, mixing voluntary and paid employment,
new market relations such as the changing welfare
mix, new legal forms (Westal, 2007, p. 5). In the
following part of the paper we present the attitudes
KMIS 2016 - 8th International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing
134
of Polish social enterprises towards innovations and
several types of innovations introduced by them.
4 RESEARCH PROBLEMS AND
METHOD
In the paper, we study social enterprises pro-
innovative orientation by addressing the following
academic questions:
How do Polish social enterprises understand
innovations?
What kind of innovations do Polish social
enterprises introduce (is there any type more
frequently appearing than others)?
What is the result of introducing innovations in
terms of employees’ and participant pro-
innovative behaviors?
The study was the element of the comprehensive
research project on issues concerning innovations
creation and implementation in companies and
social economy enterprises operating in Poland. The
research is based on statistical analysis of data
coming from a survey conducted with CATI
technique on a sample 140 social enterprises within
the project “Innovation among people. The analysis
of the innovations creation and implementation in
companies and social economy enterprises operating
in Poland”. The project was funded by the Polish
National Science Centre grant on the decision
number DEC-2013/11/B/HS4/00691.
The sample of analyzed social entities consisted
of 40 centers of social integration and 100 social
cooperatives, all such entities operating in Poland.
The respondents were mainly heads of cooperatives
(52,9%) and directors of centers of social integration
(13,6%), managers (7,1%), project coordinators
(3,6%) and other employees. Majority of
investigated social enterprises operate in the field of
services (106), few deal with building services (21)
and trade (18). Only 4 of investigated social
enterprises conduct industrial activities, 7 represent
IT sector and the rest described their field as “other”.
Examining the aforementioned academic
questions needed: listing the symptoms of pro-
innovative orientation and behaviors, listing the
symptoms of innovations, listing the indications of
the results of the implemented innovations in the
employee behavior area.
5 RESULTS
5.1 Manifestations of Social
Enterprises Pro-innovative
Orientation
As the main empirical objective of the paper is to
assess pro-innovative orientation of Polish social
enterprises, first we provide details on the study
concerning the symptoms of such orientation of the
analyzed entities. The results are given in table 1.
Table 1: Symptoms of social enterprises pro-innovative
orientation.
Symptoms of pro-innovative
orientation
Number of
enterprises
Sample 140
In our organization people being under
reintegration process participate in
creating innovations
67
In our organization innovations are
proposed by employees regardless of
their position
49
In our organization innovations result
mainly from the cooperation with other
entities
45
Innovations are proposed by different
teams in our organization
40
In our organization innovations are
proposed by employees who are
responsible for this
36
Managing innovations is the central
element of our strategy
28
In our organization there are teams
dedicated to creating innovations
19
To examine pro-innovative orientation of the
sampled entities we investigated several issues
related to their approach towards innovations. In
general, the minority of respondents really focus on
innovations. Half of them involve their “clients”
(people who they provide social services with) into
the process of creating innovations. This directly
result from above mentioned nature of such entities.
About one third of the enterprises seem to activate
their employees to think about and propose some
innovations. According to the research findings, in
these enterprises innovations are proposed by
employees regardless of their position. Also in about
one third of analyzed organizations innovations are
proposed by different teams, not necessarily people
who are expected to do so. Such attitudes probably
result from management as well as employees’
consciousness concerning the need to be innovative
Pro-Innovative Orientation of Polish Social Enterprises: The Empirical Perspective
135
in order to diversify their income streams or just be
more efficient and profitable. The data presented in
table 1 proves also that one third of research
participants focus on creating innovations based on
external sources. As they declare that in their entities
innovations result mainly from the cooperation with
other organizations, we assume that they understand
the necessity of market learning. In this context
social enterprises activities are similar to for-profit
organizations. Presented data also indicates that only
28 of sampled enterprises focus on innovations as
the main component of their strategy. However, this
is not surprising as social enterprises first of all
focus on delivering social value and solving social
problems. Only some of them adopt market
businesslike principles.
An important aspect of conducted research was
to obtain the information regarding perceiving the
nature of innovations by representatives of Polish
social enterprises. As said before, innovation is
multi-dimensional and complex issue so it might be
understood differently by several people.
Representatives of studied social enterprises were
asked to mark to what extend they agree with the
descriptions presented in table 2.
Table 2: Understanding of innovations in Polish social
enterprises- Means, Standard Deviations.
The meaning of „innovation”
Mean
Standard
Deviation
Innovation means going
beyond existing patterns of
thinking and acting
76,4
23,14
Innovation is every outcome
of human creativity
67,3
23,55
Innovation is the activity
contributing to environment
protection
50,2
31,70
Innovation is the activity
contributing to people’s life
quality improvement
77,9
20,31
Innovation is the activity
resulting in employees work
conditions improvement
71,9
22,87
Innovation means new or
improved products
74,8
25,84
Innovation means new or
improved technologies
72,8
29,73
Innovation is every activity
enabling organization to
perform better (more
effectively, more efficiently)
76,0
22,28
Innovation is the activity
distinguishing the
organization from others
67,4
25,00
Data shown in table 2 suggest that the phrase
“innovation” is understood by the majority of
analyzed entities as the activity that contributes to
people’s life quality improvement (77,9). However,
also in most of investigated social enterprises
innovation is perceived as something that exceeds
existing patterns of thinking and acting (76,4) or as
any activity that enables the organization to perform
better (76). The aforementioned meaning of
innovation pointed out by our respondents are very
general. On the other hand, it suggests that they are
very open-minded while having such point of view.
What is interesting, the survey has shown that
the social enterprises very frequently perceive
innovations in more traditional sense - as new or
better products (74,8) or new or better technologies
(72,8). Such approach is much closer to the way how
companies perceive innovations. Moreover, majority
of research participants understand innovations also
as the activity resulting in employees work
conditions improvement (71,9). Based on presented
results, we can say that in case of analyzed social
enterprises it is difficult to find a typical way of
understanding innovations (the differences are not
significant and standard deviation is high). We
assume that it results from aforementioned hybrid
nature of such organization types.
However, the main research problem was
discovering the outcomes of social enterprises in
terms of innovations. Thus we asked enterprises
representatives what types of innovations have
appeared in their organizations for the last three
years. The obtained data is shown in table 3.
The data presented in table 3 shows that the
majority of entities focus on the solutions aimed at
work conditions improvements (103). They also pay
much attention to the necessity of implementing
individual solutions referring to work and
organization and time schedules (101), solutions
enabling employees to reconcile between work and
personal life (96) as well as the necessity to
implement the activities focused on employees
personal and professional development (95).
It is evident that for social enterprises the main
field of attention while implementing innovations is
related to their social capital. As they are originally
established to solve social problems, it seems natural
that they concentrate on the aspects concerning their
social capital which is the foundation of their
existence. Although they introduce some product or
market innovations (69, 67), their main focus is on
another area. This proves that even though social
enterprises have to generate profits in order to
survive, delivering social value is their priority.
KMIS 2016 - 8th International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing
136
Moreover, we need to remember that the financial
outcomes of a social enterprise result from of the
efforts of its participants and employees. We assume
that due to this correctness, social enterprises heads
most of all try to satisfy their participants and
employees by implementing some innovations of
social character. What is also interesting a lot of
investigated entities (79) for the last three years also
have introduced some innovations concerned with
changing their internal and external communication.
Table 3: Innovations appearing in social enterprises.
Type of innovation that has appeared
for the last three years
Number of
enterprises
Sample 140
Implementation of individual solutions
concerning work organization and time
schemes
101
Implementation of activities aimed at
employees’ personal and professional
development
95
Implementation of solutions aimed at
employees’ work conditions
improvement
103
Implementation of solutions aimed at
employees’ social and life conditions
improvement
76
Implementation of solutions enabling
employees reconciliation between work
and personal life
96
Changes in the field of internal and
external communication
79
Market innovations
67
Product innovations
69
Technological innovations
48
Strategic innovations
52
As proved by presented research findings,
analyzed social enterprise concentrate mostly on
internal social innovations (called also innovations
at the workplace) which are perceived as a
restoration of an organization directed at employees
and their relationships, leading to more efficient
functioning of an organization and the opportunity to
develop and implement any talents appearing within
them (Jędrych, 2013). Here, it is important to say
that social enterprises’ human capital is very
diversified, taking into account such variables as
education, qualifications, abilities, motivation to
work or temperament. That is another reason to
focus on integrating people within such entity and
paying attention to their feelings and behaviors
concerning the workplace.
5.2 Innovations versus Pro-innovative
Employee Behaviors
Another research problem was to identify how the
innovations introduced in the studied social
enterprises influence the behavior of their employees
and participants.The collected data collected enabled
us also to calculate Pearson correlation coefficients
between the introduced innovations and chosen
manifestations of pro-innovative orientation of
social enterprises’ employees and participants. The
obtained correlations are given in table 4.
The data presented in table 4 verify the link
between the fact that organization’s management
implements changes aimed at employees and
participants personal and professional development
and the low level of employees resistance towards
changes. There is no doubt that people’s fear of
changes is one of the most significant obstacles
while implementing innovation process. Therefore,
overcoming employees and participants’ resistance
towards novelty becomes a priority for social entities
who want to survive and increase their performance.
Moreover, as evident from the data shown in table 4,
there is quite high correlation between implementing
innovations of strategic character (e.g. building
strategic networks with other organizations) and the
low level of employees resistance towards changes.
We assume that implementing “pro-employees” and
“pro-participants” innovations makes them aware of
the benefits resulting from openness to novelty. This
seem to be a good direction to stimulate pro-
innovative attitudes of people.
The analysis of presented correlations indicates
also that implementing innovations aimed at
employees and participants personal and
professional development is positively correlated
with the fact that innovations are proposed by
employees and participants regardless of their tasks
and position and the fact that employees and
participants engage in implementing ideas proposed
by others. Having to bear in mind that today
innovations occur only as the result of common
work of different actors who are able and eager to
cooperate, we perceive this as the prove of
developing pro-innovative orientation of analyzed
social enterprises.
The data given in table 4 verify also the link
between implementing innovations in the field of
internal and external communication and the fact
that employees and participants are not afraid of
showing criticism. This is particularly important as
successful implementation of any innovation
requires discussion and confrontation of different
Pro-Innovative Orientation of Polish Social Enterprises: The Empirical Perspective
137
points of view. Thus employees and participants
have to feel free to present their opinions, even if
they are critical. It is also indisputable that while
people feel satisfied at the workplace, they are more
likely to take others’ negative feedback as the
opportunity to learn and change. Thus, the
innovations can appear more frequently.
Table 4: Pearson Correlation Coefficients between
innovations and employees pro-innovative behaviors.
Innovations are proposed by employees
regardless of their position
Employees
engage in implementing ideas
proposed by others
Employees are
not afraid of showing
criticism
Managers share with emplouyees both
good and bad information
Relations between employees are
positive
A
.135
.502
.167
.215
.068
B
.636
.545
.338
.333
.311
C
.205
.187
.120
.209
.239
D
.641
.190
.515
.257
.085
E
.156
.175
.147
.270
.072
F
.211
.211
.603
.312
-.01
G
.243
.480
.225
.253
.141
H
.234
.161
.142
.116
-.03
I
.313
-.01
.206
.099
-.01
J
.545
.249
.518
.317
.260
A - Changes of work organization and time schemes;
B - Employees’ personal and professional development;
C - Changes employees’ work conditions improvement;
D - Employees’ social and life conditions improvement;
E - Employees reconciliation between work and personal life
improvement;
F- Changes of internal and external communication;
G - Market innovations;
H - Product innovations;
I - Technological innovations;
J - Strategic innovations.
6 CONCLUSIONS
Summing up, our findings advance the research on
social enterprises in different ways. To our
knowledge, the presented study is one of the few
investigations concerning the issues of innovations
and pro-innovative orientation of social enterprises
in general, particularly located in Poland.
First of all, the research findings allow us to
assess pro-innovative orientation of analyzed
entities. Given research findings lead us to the
statement that pro-innovative orientation of studied
enterprises is at “intermediate level”. Investigated
manifestations proved that Polish social enterprises
are not really advanced at focusing on innovations
within their strategies and everyday activities.
On the other hand our findings prove that
analyzed social enterprises are quite active in the
field of introducing workplace innovations. Majority
of them are oriented on solutions concerning work
organization, personal and professional development
of their employees and participants or solutions
aimed at work conditions improvement. We assume
that such focus results from the nature on social
entities but also from the consciousness that satisfied
workers are the most valuable assets for any
organization. As proved by presented findings,
employees and participants of social enterprise who
perceive the innovations appearing in the enterprises
as good and valuable for them (and thus feel
appreciated) become more active in terms of pro-
innovative behaviors.
Having to bear in mind that analyzed entities are
not really active in introducing product and market
innovations, we assume that they lack abilities
concerning market analysis. This naturally results
from the nature of this type of organizations. Thus
we propose that Polish social enterprises need to
concentrate on developing their market analysis
skills to become more competitive and profitable.
Finally, we are aware of the limitations of our
study. First of all, the collected data enabling the
assessment of Polish social enterprises pro-
innovative orientation is based on opinions of the
selected employee of every organization. In spite of
the fact that we attempted to conduct the interviews
with a social enterprises representatives who were
able to offer the necessary knowledge concerning
the analyzed entity, there is always a risk that the
person has presented a subjective picture of the
enterprise situation. Secondly, we are aware of the
fact that while describing the manifestations of pro-
innovative orientation of investigated entities we
used limited amount of characteristics that can be
KMIS 2016 - 8th International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing
138
used to do it. As enhancing organization’ s pro-
innovative orientation involves wide range of issues,
this study inspires us for in-depth investigations, not
only with a use of quantitative methods, but also
based on the technique of free-form interview,
participatory observation or focus group interviews
with the employees. Among implications of our
study and the problems inspiring for further research
we point out the issue of motivating social
enterprises employees and participants to engage in
the activities proving their consciousness and
eagerness in the field of creating different types of
innovations, particularly product and market
innovations which are said to be the foundation of
modern sustainable organization. We assume that
the importance of being innovative and competitive
entity implies the need to search for the ways of
influencing employees pro-innovative behaviors.
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