2nd Research Day in “Social Entrepreneurship »
« An alternative way for innovation:
Re-Questioning the tradition within the Social Economy and social entrepreneurship »

Social economy could be considered as a specific sector of activities. Evers & Laville (2004) define it as a “third sector”. Social Economy is composed of public actors as private organizations (firms, association, trade unions…). They act and exchange in specific institutional contexts. The Social Economy is synonym of freedom, solidarity, community and the search of service for the collective interest (Monnier & Thiry, 2001). Inside the “third sectors”, public and private actors have to ameliorate their competitive advantage either through defensive and offensive strategies (Porter, 1980).
So far, few studies analyzed the innovativeness and its impact on the social economy. They mainly focus on country level factors, such as from Scandinavian perspective (Lundvall, 2002). A deeper analysis is not only needed regarding the innovativeness concept itself, but also in the context of social entrepreneurship.
In fact, innovation and innovativeness are widely studied in social sciences. Still, additional insight can be gained by exploring the other side of the coin. For instance, are innovations and traditions two opposite concepts? Or are they complementary, especially in the context of social entrepreneurship and social economy? Additionally, would retro-innovations be considered and even fundamental in such contexts? Such a logic might often be considered as negative by most actors (Roulleau-Berger, 2000) mostly because the economic elements prevail.
Then, how to balance or to integrate tradition of know-how, brand, etc. … and innovation within the social sector? How to pursue such objectives from organizational and individual perspective?. What are the emerging trends and the new rules brought about by social entrepreneurs? How do they diffuse such innovations, or how can they rely on traditions? Here are some questions the workshop aims at investigating. To summarize, we mostly welcome papers that could answer these two generic questions by proposing any contribution on the following topics:
- New Organization form for creating and running a business in social economy;
- Social Innovation;
- Link between innovation and tradition in the Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship;
- Innovative Business Models in the Social Economy;
- Professionalization of the Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship.
We also welcome other articles with topics directly linked to Social Entrepreneurship and the Social Economy:
- Nascent Entrepreneurship and motivation for creating a business within the Social Economy;
- Institutions within the Social Economy;
- Profiles of the Social Entrepreneur;
- Business Models within the Third Sector and Social Entrepreneurship;
- Education in and for Social Entrepreneurship and the Third Sector;
- Coaching and financing social Entrepreneurship;
- Business Opportunity in the Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship.

Articles should be submitted to the organizers of the conference: amaalaoui@esg.fr

After a blind referee process the authors of best papers will be invited to submit enriched versions for a special issue of International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business (IJESB).

March 1st 2014 Full paper submission
April 20th 2014 Author Notification
May 23th 2014 2nd research day in Social Entrepreneurship
June 30th 2014 Final Submission of selected papers for publication (IJESB)

Articles should be submitted to the organizers of the conference: amaalaoui@esg.fr