Abstract
In front of the potential of social innovation to propose new entrepreneurial solutions to current social problems, the incubation approach has been promoted as a privileged method to stimulate and support its emergence. This research proposes to deepen our knowledge on social incubators and to explore the links between incubation and social innovation, as well as their effects. The analysis focuses primarily on the practices put in place during the promotion and incubation of social innovations. Three empirical studies have been conducted and each of them focuses on a specific dimension of the incubator’s work. The first article shows how social incubators work to legitimize social innovation as a new response to social needs, in their particular institutional contexts. On the basis of a comparative analysis of four pioneer incubators in Europe, the results show their key role as institutional entrepreneurs in promoting a discourse favorable to social innovation, in creating novel collaborations, and in attracting resources to the incubation process. The second article highlights the influence of incubation practices on shaping the social innovations and on drawing the tradeoffs between their social and economic goals. The in-depth qualitative analysis of the incubation process in a French incubator identifies three effects produced by these practices: the commodification of social problems, the entrepreneurialization of individuals, and the market-embedding of organizations. Finally, the third article focuses on the micro level of the incubator - entrepreneur interaction and focuses on observing the tensions at work in the construction of social innovations. The longitudinal study of the incubation process of three projects highlights the existence of a process aimed at creating entrepreneurial subjectivities. Moreover, it identifies certain conditions for a successful incubation. Overall, these results contribute to open the “black box” of social incubation and highlight the challenges raised in the process of promoting and supporting initiatives that pursue both social and economic goals.