Social Innovation as a Concept Coursework Example

Essays on Social Innovation as a Concept Coursework The paper "Social Innovation as a Concept" is a brilliant example of coursework on marketing. Social innovation is a concept that shows paradigmatic rejection of the technology-based application of innovation as enshrined in the traditional focus. This kind of innovation has transcended beyond boundary limits to inform the development and political policies. This is a shift that enshrines the importance of societal assets and social relations reconfiguration. Social innovation is presented in the literature as a powerful theme in both economic and social science developments and practices enshrining its focal role in socio-political research and practice (MacCallum, et al. 2008). As such, literature has defined it as the use of â€Å"new and creative ideas to generate environmental or societal needs† (Davila, et al. 2006) which point-out an emphatic need on social relations and focus on human needs (MacCallum, et al. 2008). Its success or performance indicators are measured ag ainst a broad range of societal and environmental outcomes.Informed by such a background, this paper will attempt to explore specific social innovations. It will entail a comparative analysis of two innovations seeking to explore the inherent similarities and differences. The resultant benefits and challenges will also be focused upon. The innovations will be presented as case studies. The innovations in this paper’s focus include the emissions trading initiatives and other market-based instruments such as the use of taxation and subsidies. Emissions can be regulated by the use of absolute caps or allowable intensities (Stavins 2004).The emissions trading innovation is as much social innovation as it is environmental and sustainability issues, economic, political and scientific. From a social economics and resources perspective, treating resources as commons shared by a variety of users has a likelihood of overexploitation. This is so in the absence of regulations and rationi ng. As such, the environment, more so the atmosphere, has a likelihood of being excessively polluted prompting a need for a form of control. Emissions trading is an innovation of such a form of rationing. Contrasted to traditional and previously used environment sustainability regulations, emissions trading is an innovation in which the regulating body sets a specific allowable emissions level. As such, this innovation acknowledges that atmospheric emissions are an inevitable environmental issue of concern as long as there is a production that uses energy. It is, therefore, a regulatory innovation that allows emitters of atmospheric pollutants considerable flexibility in planning and implementing how to do emissions regulations (Tietenberg 2006). This flexibility revolves around the alternatives of either making reductions from a combination of various sources in a plant or having reductions from another facility (Tietenberg 2006).