The 2021 edition of the International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC), the world's leading conference dedicated to social innovation research , will be held in Milan, on 8-9-10 September 2021, hosted for the first time by Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, ALTIS and E4Impact Foundation. The event brings together researchers and academics from all over the world to discuss social innovation and social entrepreneurship together .
This year's theme is "Enabling the change! Social innovation and enterprises for a better future". In focusing on this perspective, we draw on the main research on the subject, as well as from the activities carried out in practice by ALTIS and E4Impact, in Italy and Africa. We want to highlight the important role social innovation plays in shaping fairer and more sustainable societies, both in developed and developing countries.
The event saw the presentation of more than 300 papers, in response to 21 thematic Calls for Papers that explored various aspects and declinations of social innovation, from the most theoretical to the most concrete. Over the course of the 3 days, we divided the participating academics into 76 parallel sessions and 8 panels, which took place in various classrooms of the Milan campus in Largo Gemelli and, simultaneously, in streaming, via the University's digital platform.
All presentations were in fact held in hybrid mode, with 70 participants in attendance and more than 200 connected online from Europe, Africa, America, Asia. The various classrooms, physical and digital, were managed by a team of volunteers, students of Università Cattolica, coordinated by ALTIS staff in full compliance with health measures.
At intervals between the presentation and discussion sessions of the papers, Keynote Speeches were held, held by experts in the field of social innovation:
- Chris Marquis, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University ("Building better businesses: researching how the BCorp movement is remaking capitalism").
- Johanna Mair, Hertie School ("Research on social enterprise as disciplined exploration and imagination"
- Sophie Bacq, Indiana University - Kelley School of Business ("Civic wealth creation and the role(s) of community in social entrepreneurship").
- Matthew Grimes, Cambridge Judge Business School ("Navigating hype in the context of social innovation")
- Silvia Dorado-Banacloche, University of Massachusetts Boston - UMass Boston College of Management ("What do we call Grand Challenges? From definition to knowledge map").
There was no shortage of moments of celebration and sociality. The Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Antonella Occhino, presented the "Best PhD Student Paper Award" to Dillon Berjani (paper written with Karen Verduijn and Elco van Burg) of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam), and the "Best Conference Paper Award" to Sára Forgács-Fábián and Sándor Takács of the Corvinus University of Budapest.
To foster networking, the in-person academics were invited to an aperitif at the Arco della Pace and attended a violin and piano concert, played respectively by Matteo Fedeli and Antonio Scaioli, in the splendid setting of the Aula Magna. Fedeli played a rare "Guarnieri" violin, the work of the same luthier who made the "Cannone", Paganini's violin.
All abstracts accepted for ISIRC 2021 will be collected and published in an ebook. In addition, thanks to "Special Issues", participants will be able to submit their papers for publication in the Journal of Management Studies, Sustainability MDPI and Piccola Impresa/Small Business.
At the end of the conference, Chairs Matteo Pedrini and Giacomo Ciambotti passed the baton to Saint Mary's University (Halifax, Canada) which will organize ISIRC 2022.