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"Offering a comprehensive classification of the analytical approaches to the social within the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship studies, this book showcases a wide variety of perspectives and a collection of theoretical analysis tackling social complexity. The editors bring together contributors who mirror the heterogeneity present in the innovation and entrepreneurship fields, aiming to spark a discussion on the pluralist and critical nature of the social dimension within research, and to examine societal transformation processes and their attending multifaceted issues. Exploring how the social is analytically understood in innovation and entrepreneurship studies, the book proposes a non-exhaustive spectrum ranging from implicit assumption to explicit conceptualization in defining methodological foundations. Discussing the social and methodological challenges involved in the integration of social dimensions, this book will be a crucial companion for innovation and entrepreneurship scholars and students. This book is also a must-read for policy-makers and practitioners involved in societal transformation processes"--

Over the past two decades we have witnessed growing academic and policy interest in phenomena such as social innovation and social entrepreneurship. In these instances, the "social" element has often been described as a new or rediscovered category, indicating a normative predisposition to "elevate" existing or emerging innovation and entrepreneurship processes by identifying and promoting socially-acceptable standards of behavior and goal-setting. While previous reviews on social innovation have focused on the historical development of the concept and its role in academic debate, this article critically reviews the place of the "social" in current mainstream Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) studies. The aim is to understand how this literature has been evolving in relation to this element and to what extent this addition has promoted a radical shift in the research direction. Our review, based on selected articles from 16 I&E mainstream journals, advances a novel classification of the dominant approaches to the social dimension in I&E studies, identifying four main categories: disciplinary, integrationist, separationist, and essentialist. What emerges is that most I&E studies ignore, minimize, or compartmentalize the "social", using it to extend existing frameworks rather than to evolve them. Indeed, while the "social" has been offering an avenue for critical views to challenge mainstream discourse, at present it does not seem to significantly affect the latter's evolution.