Evaluating Social Innovations: Implications for Evaluation Design

Social innovations (SIs) frequently bring previously unrelated actors, ideas, and practices together in new configurations with the goal of addressing social needs. However, the dizzying variety of definitions of SI and their dynamic, exploratory character raise dilemmas for evaluators tasked with their evaluations. This article is based on a systematic review of research on evaluation, specifically an analysis of 28 published peer-reviewed empirical studies, within SI contexts. Given that design considerations are becoming increasingly important to evaluators as the complexity of social interventions grows, our objectives were to identify influences on design of evaluations of SI and clarify, which SI features should be taken into account when designing evaluations. We ultimately developed a conceptual framework to aid evaluators in recognizing some differences between SI and conventional social interventions, and correspondingly, implications for evaluation design. This framework is discussed in terms of its implications for ongoing research and practice