Socio-Tech Innovation

Reviews / Votes

A key premise of this book is to understand what qualifies as a "socio-tech venture" and, perhaps more importantly, what does not qualify! While exuberance to embrace all things "social" can be exciting and productive, emphasizing "all things social" is not and should not be the same as "accepting as social all things." Scillitoe, Poonamalle and Joy approach that distinction with an important, critical eye, such as where - as the book describes it - "social impact is a byproduct at best" (Introduction). This book's efforts are a welcome and useful bridge between theory and practice by exploring experiences of a discrete and diverse collection of companies and their principals. The technology thread provides a convenient way of more easily finding similarities and differences with regard to early points of decision and the choices made. That socio-technology thread should not discourage a more general reader from delving deeply and extrapolating how the lessons and their contexts canapply more broadly, especially to identifying those situations and approaches that result in what I call "differentiated social good."

-John Tyler, General Counsel, Secretary, and Chief Ethics Officer, Kauffman Foundation

This is an important book in the social entrepreneurship conversation, emphasizing the role of technology as an addition to the usual discussions about entrepreneurial character, innovation and social incentives. We are drawn into engaging cases - many in India and Africa, but also in Mexico and the USA - where technological resources are servants in addressing social challenges in a way that is not only impressive but can inspire new and creative responses to human need. A potential textbook, but also a contribution to scholarly conversation about social entrepreneurship and social enterprise

-Ana Maria Peredo, Professor Political Ecology, Former Director Research Centre for Co-operative and Community -Based Economies.University of Victoria, Canada