Scaling Social Innovation: A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of School-Based Mentoring Interventions

Bufali, Maria Vittori; Calò, Francesca; Morton, Alec and Connelly, Graham (2023). Scaling Social Innovation: A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study of School-Based Mentoring Interventions. Journal of Social Entrepreneurship (Early access).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19420676.2023.2213715

Abstract

Social innovation is increasingly recognised as a powerful vehicle to address unmet societal needs. Nonetheless, research into how contexts and agency interact to determine outcomes/risks of its scaling appears still limited. This study draws on structuration theory to fill some gaps. By comparing two school-based mentoring interventions, it first shows that comparable external catalysts can trigger diverging ambitions and paths to scale. Second, it finds that certain strategic/agentic choices (e.g. entrepreneurial, political, coalition-building skills; evaluation), combined with specific contextual features, help to achieve more rapidly a larger scale of expansion. Finally, it highlights which risks, in this field, more strongly relate to agentic and/or contextual factors, providing insights for research, policy and practice.

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