Social Entrepreneurship in the Conduct of Responsible Innovation: Analysis Cluster in Mexican SMEs

Abstract

Responsible innovation combines philanthropic and economic aspects and it is common to refer to entrepreneurs who lead it as “social entrepreneurs”. The present study of 100 Mexican small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), provides knowledge of an exploratory nature about what the models of organization are conducive to SMEs in the generation and development of responsible innovations. Through the statistical technique of cluster analysis, this study identified and characterized four models of organization according to the level of social entrepreneurship intentions reached: (1) “The techno-scientific organization”, (2) “The techno-social organization”, (3) “The capitalist-social organization” and (4) “The capitalist organization”. While in Europe the dominant discourse about responsible innovation focuses on the control of the risk of social rejection of the advance of science and technology. In contexts, such as the Mexicans, the phenomenon is configured as the mechanism through which entrepreneurs articulate its technological and scientific capabilities to solve priority and specific problems of the society, however, the social impact does not crucially affect their business initiatives. The techno-scientific organization (50% of studied SMEs) is proposed as the model of organization with greater viability for Mexican entrepreneurs.