Innovación social como una oportunidad para los emprendedores sociales en el cantón Cuenca

Abstract

This paper focuses on the analysis of the levels of social innovation and opportunity as a consequence, in social enterprises in the canton of Cuenca. The scarcity of information on social entrepreneurship in Latin America, and specifically in Ecuador, has been one of the factors that have limited the deepening of concepts and the comparison with other studies. However, this paper attempts to clearly explain and analyses social ventures, their levels of social innovation and opportunities through indicators such as research and development, new technologies, among others. The information on the different social enterprises was obtained from the database of the Institute of Popular and Solidarity Economy provided by the project "The European Latin American Network in Support of Social Entrepreneurs" (ELANET). For the data collection, a sample of 162 social enterprises located in the canton of Cuenca was determined. The results showed that more than 50% are at a medium and high level of innovation, and that the probability of generating opportunities in the market is 90% overall. These findings have allowed for a clearer vision of the different situations in which social enterprises find themselves, as there is a direct relationship between their level of innovation and their opportunity within the local market.