Design tools to build sustainable business models for social innovation

In the face of growing societal challenges, Social Innovations craft solutions to unmet social needs. Twenty-five SI case studies were analysed under SIMPACT, a research project funded under the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme. The results of this analysis demonstrated that SIs differ from traditional business models in the following ways: (i) they operate on paradoxical strategies; (ii) they cope with unfit legal frameworks; (iii) they are built on a divergence in the allocation of cost, use and benefit; and (iv) they employ frugal innovation strategies. As social innovators often work under extreme resource scarcity, keeping the end game on creating a business model that drives meaningful change while being cost-effective and sustainable is king. Here the finding of our research is that social innovators currently do not make use of tools that would be extremely useful in designing effective business models. We thus propose to set up an overall framework based on a revised version of the business model canvas to support innovators with tools, primarily coming from the field of service design, that give shape to sustainable solutions. The canvas therefore in our view is more than one of the many analytical devices or tools but rather the gateway for the design toolbox.