Mar 19, 2019 – International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development (IJISD), Vol. 13, No. 3/4, 2019
This paper discusses the concepts of social and technological innovation in order to analyse their relations and contradictions. After a long period in which innovation was related to social processes, it has been related to technological and economic development in the last century. Social innovation as a concept has acquired a restrictive meaning is defined by many as actions to combat social exclusions and environmental degradation promoted by technological innovation. This study suggests a vision for innovation and its influence on environmental sustainability through a bibliographical analysis that demonstrates how innovation processes are techno-socially related. It uses an analytic matrix that allows comparing these concepts to understand how socio-technical innovations promote environmental, social and economical sustainability. In the end, it recommends more studies to determine and measure the innovative sustainable practices of an organisation in both the social and technological spheres.