1 INTRODUCTION

Digital social innovation (DSI) involves the use of digital technologies in the development and implementation of innovative products, services, processes and business models that seek to improve the well-being and agency of socially disadvantaged groups or address social problems related to marginality, inequality and social exclusion (Qureshi, Pan, & Zheng, 2017; Shalini et al., 2021). Often, DSI is less about technological innovation and more about social innovation—a process of finding innovative, effective and sustainable solutions to pressing societal challenges, such as those listed in sustainable development goals (SDGs). Thus, technology can be anywhere in the range of simple WhatsApp enabled groups (Parthiban et al., 2021; Parthiban, Qureshi, Bandyopadhyay, et al., 2020) and advanced blockchain-enabled supply chain (Hota et al., 2021), but its deployment is innovative in tackling wicked social problems, such as poverty, inequality, social exclusion, marginalisation and poor healthcare access (Bhatt et al., 2021; Escobedo et al., 2021; Hota & Mitra, 2021; Jha et al., 2016; Leong et al., 2016; Qureshi et al., 2018). The DSI initiatives can be led by social entrepreneurs, government agencies, charities, trust, non-government organisations (NGOs), cooperatives or corporations under their corporate social responsibilities. However, given the scope and scale of SDGs, such initiatives more likely involve cross-sector partnerships and multiple stakeholders.

Various international agencies envisage the role of DSIs in achieving SDGs in three principal ways: providing access to information for example, commodity prices and weather information to the small landholding farmers; providing access to services to marginalised communities for example, education, health and financial services; and measuring and monitoring the SDGs progress for example, evidence-based, real-time measurements (UNGA, 2015; United Nation, 2021). The extant research highlights several instances of DSI, even though the term itself is not used often. For example, a social enterprise in India used a simple battery-operated portable projector to disseminate locally embedded farming best practices (Qureshi et al., 2018). In this special issue, Ravishankar (2021) highlights how a financial intermediary, Rang De, leveraged a digital platform to provide small loans to marginalised farmers. Hota et al. (2021) studied Ethitrade, a social intermediary, which uses advanced block chain technology to provide better prices to rural farmers by establishing provenance. DSI is, therefore, a current and important topic and a promising research area for information systems (IS) and management researchers. Thus, DSI holds tremendous promise at the conceptual, practical and pragmatic levels in addressing social issues and achieving SDGs; however, we have only recently started developing a theoretical understanding of this complex and fast-emerging phenomenon. As of now, this stream of research mostly focuses on issues around accessing information and services but has paid scant attention to issues related to measuring and monitoring SDGs progress (see Table 2). Also, research on ethical dilemmas inherent in engaging with marginalised communities and negotiating various ways power manifests in these contexts has been lacking. This editorial provides a research framework to highlight various stimulating research directions and theoretical lenses to explore them.

中文翻译：

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数字社会创新：概述和研究框架

1 介绍

数字社会创新 (DSI) 涉及在创新产品、服务、流程和商业模式的开发和实施中使用数字技术，以寻求改善社会弱势群体的福祉和能动性，或解决与边缘化、不平等相关的社会问题和社会排斥（Qureshi, Pan, & Zheng,  2017 ; Shalini et al.,  2021）。通常情况下，DSI是少有关技术创新和更多的关于社会创新，一个寻找创新，有效和可持续的解决方案，以紧迫的社会挑战，如在可持续发展目标（SDGs）中列出的过程。因此，技术可以在简单的 WhatsApp 启用组范围内的任何地方（Parthiban 等人， 2021 年；Parthiban、Qureshi、Bandyopadhyay 等人，  2020 年）和先进的支持区块链的供应链（Hota 等人，  2021 年），但其部署在解决贫困、不平等、社会排斥、边缘化和医疗保健条件差（Bhatt 等人，  2021 年；Escobedo 等人，  2021 年；Hota & Mitra，  2021 年；Jha 等人，  2016 年；Leong 等人，  2016 年；Qureshi 等人，  2018 年））。DSI 倡议可由社会企业家、政府机构、慈善机构、信托、非政府组织 (NGO)、合作社或企业根据其企业社会责任领导。然而，鉴于可持续发展目标的范围和规模，此类举措更有可能涉及跨部门伙伴关系和多个利益相关者。

各种国际机构通过三种主要方式设想 DSI 在实现可持续发展目标方面的作用：向小农提供获取信息的途径，例如商品价格和天气信息；为边缘化社区提供服务，例如教育、卫生和金融服务；衡量和监测可持续发展目标的进展，例如，基于证据的实时衡量（联合国大会，  2015 年；联合国，  2021 年）。现有的研究强调了 DSI 的几个实例，尽管该术语本身并不经常使用。例如，印度的一家社会企业使用一个简单的电池供电的便携式投影仪来传播本地嵌入的农业最佳实践（Qureshi 等，  2018）。在本期特刊中，Ravishankar ( 2021 ) 重点介绍了金融中介 Rang De 如何利用数字平台向边缘化农民提供小额贷款。霍塔等人。( 2021) 研究了社会中介 Ethitrade，它使用先进的区块链技术通过建立出处来为农民提供更好的价格。因此，DSI 是信息系统 (IS) 和管理研究人员的当前重要课题和有前途的研究领域。因此，DSI 在解决社会问题和实现可持续发展目标方面在概念、实践和务实层面具有巨大的前景；然而，我们最近才开始对这种复杂且快速出现的现象进行理论理解。截至目前，这一研究流主要关注与获取信息和服务有关的问题，但很少关注与衡量和监测可持续发展目标进展相关的问题（见表 2）。还，一直缺乏对与边缘化社区接触和谈判权力在这些情况下的各种表现方式所固有的道德困境的研究。这篇社论提供了一个研究框架，以突出各种令人兴奋的研究方向和探索它们的理论视角。