Our Latest Publications: Beyond Borders: How Do Social Innovations Really Scale Internationally?

Delighted to share that our article, “International Scaling of Social Innovations Through Digitalization: A 3D Framework,” is now published in International Business Review.

Celebrating the journey with my co-authors Tanvi Kothari and Dr. Sadaf Khurshid, and the amazing Editors (thanks Omar AL-Tabbaa Rob van Tulder Rudolf R. Sinkovics and Prof. Joseph Amankwah-Amoah, FAcSS, Roger Strange Fang Lee Cooke) and our anonymous reviewers.

When a social innovation crosses borders, what does “international scaling” actually mean?and what does international business not capture? Our research argues that the traditional measures (sales, FDI, exports, etc.,) are not sufficient to explain the internationalization of social innovations as they cross borders in very different ways, including through impact diffusion, legitimacy, institutional change, resource acquisition and beneficiary reach. A social innovation does not necessarily have to reproduce the conventional multinational-company model to become internationally significant. Its ideas, impact, resources and ability to influence institutions may travel even when traditional measures of international expansion tell only part of the story. 

I am most proud of our methodology - this is a qualitative historical study built around 12 cases. We use theory from dynamic capabilities, diffusion and internationalization domains and looked at the role of digitalization. 

👉 Read the article free via the Elsevier: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593126001113?dgcid=coauthor