Digital social innovation (DSI) offers incumbents a strategic field of action to leverage the opportunities of digital technologies to address pressing societal challenges. By proposing a taxonomy and 12 clusters of incumbents’ DSI initiatives based on a sample of 296 real-world objects, we develop a unified understanding of DSI and its characteristics. This lays the foundation for further theorising on DSI from an incumbent perspective and for researchers to shape the DSI field. The taxonomy provides incumbents with an orientation to realise DSI’s rich strategic potentials throughout the DSI ideation process and in assessing DSI types.

数字社会创新 (DSI) 为现有企业提供了一个战略行动领域，以利用数字技术的机遇来应对紧迫的社会挑战。通过基于 296 个现实世界对象的样本提出分类法和现有企业 DSI 举措的 12 个集群，我们对 DSI 及其特征形成了统一的理解。这为从现有角度进一步理论化 DSI 以及研究人员塑造 DSI 领域奠定了基础。该分类法为现有企业提供了一个方向，以在整个 DSI 构思过程和评估 DSI 类型时实现 DSI 丰富的战略潜力。