Creating Value from Purpose-Based Innovation: starting from Frailty

AbstractIn recent years, a growing number of firms have implemented the concept of shared value creation and proposed themselves as purpose-driven organisations. It is widely argued that such a dynamic will influence the next wave of innovation and growth in the global economy and contribute to reshape capitalism and its impact on society. In this perspective, the active participation of people, users, consumers, and businesses in social innovation processes is fundamental. This article explores the integration of the seemingly disparate notions of purpose-driven innovation and social innovation. In this vein, we aim at providing a contribution by exploring the creation of value by purpose-driven initiatives which introduce innovations in the field of the care of frail people (more specifically, people with disabilities) with a participative innovation approach and using relatively simple technologies. Drawing on the literature about purpose-driven management concerning social innovation involving people with disabilities, we propose the concept of ‘care-driven innovation’ referring to the care and sense of reciprocity which is shared and extended towards others - in some cases people with similar needs and expectations - as an act of love, gratuity and solidarity, as well as self-empowerment, and not as a strictly medical or healthcare-related care. We highlight the existence of initiatives in the field that do create social value for society and also investigate the facilitating factors and the obstacles they experience in implementing innovations from people with inequitable social power.Keywords: Purpose-driven organizationspurpose-driven innovationsparticipative innovationcare-driven innovationsocial mission-driven businessesparticipative approachshared value creation AcknowledgmentsThe authors wish to extend their heartfelt thanks to the MakeToCare project, and especially to the ever-enthusiastic Filippo Cipriani, for their invaluable support and encouragement towards our research. For supportive comments on earlier versions of this paper, we would like to acknowledge Journal of Social Entrepreneurship Editor Alex Nicholls and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable input. Additionally, we would like to express our appreciation to the participants of the Social Issues Management sessions at the 2022 Academy of Management Meetings in Seattle, the sessions of the 2022 R&D Management Conference in Trento, and the 2022 Sinergie-SIMA Management Conference in Milan, as well as the Early Scholars Workshop held at the University of Palermo 2022. Their feedback greatly contributed to the development of this paper. Lastly, the authors recognise Giulio Ferrigno, Gianluca Gionfriddo, Jakki Mohr, and Francesco Rullani for providing insightful developmental suggestions.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 www.patientslikeme.com.