Purpose

This paper aims to illustrate how dispersed institutes of social innovation operating as intermediary actors within higher education institutions (HEIs) may help overcome many of the institutional bureaucracies and structures that inhibit social innovation in higher education.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reviews core conditions for social innovation, along with the opportunities, challenges and tensions that emerge as HEIs work to apply these conditions in practice. It then describes how dispersed institutes enact principles of decentralization, localization and collaboration in pursuit of social innovation.

Findings

Five main ways that dispersed institutes enable social innovation were identified in this review, including bridging academic–practice divides, enabling co-creation and co-production with users, facilitating experiential and co-curricular education, supporting interdisciplinary collaborations and generating customized and place-based solutions.

Practical implications

Findings suggest four strategies that HEIs can use to support dispersed institutes, including prioritizing social purpose organizations as institutional partners, incentivizing public engagement and collaboration, leveraging their convening power to strengthen global networks among dispersed institutes and using budgeting models that reflect the importance of creating both economic and social value.

Originality/value

Although innovation labs in HEIs have long been a feature of natural sciences and technology services, they are still comparatively new for the social sciences and humanities. This paper addresses a gap in the literature on the value contributed by dispersed institutes of social innovation operating within HEIs such as living labs, makerspaces, incubators and excubators, social innovation parks, cooperation accelerators and technology transfer offices.

中文翻译：

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去中心化社会创新：分散机构在高等教育中的价值

目的

本文旨在说明分散的社会创新机构如何在高等教育机构 (HEIs) 中充当中介角色，以帮助克服许多阻碍高等教育社会创新的机构官僚机构和结构。

设计/方法/方法

本文回顾了社会创新的核心条件，以及高等教育机构在实践中应用这些条件时出现的机遇、挑战和紧张局势。然后，它描述了分散的机构如何制定权力下放、本地化和协作的原则，以追求社会创新。

发现

本次审查确定了分散机构实现社会创新的五种主要方式，包括弥合学术-实践鸿沟、实现与用户的共同创造和共同生产、促进体验式和课外教育、支持跨学科合作以及产生定制和场所基于的解决方案。

实际影响

调查结果提出了高等教育机构可以用来支持分散机构的四种策略，包括优先考虑社会目的组织作为机构合作伙伴、激励公众参与和合作、利用它们的召集力来加强分散机构之间的全球网络以及使用反映创建两者重要性的预算模型经济和社会价值。

原创性/价值

尽管高校创新实验室长期以来一直是自然科学和技术服务的特色，但它们对于社会科学和人文学科来说仍然相对较新。本文解决了关于高等教育机构内分散的社会创新机构所贡献的价值的文献空白，例如生活实验室、创客空间、孵化器和孵化器、社会创新园区、合作加速器和技术转移办公室。