Social Innovation and Nonprofit Resource Provision: A Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This research adopts a resource dependency approach to support the process of social innovation application within the context of nonprofit resource procurement using a comparative sample of re- source-providing organizations (n = 8) and nonprofit resource recipients (n = 10). An organizational discourse analysis was adopted to explore concepts of power and legitimacy across groups revealing several ways that social innovation is employed and challenged by both resource recipients and providers. Further, a text coverage analysis revealed several discrepancies with the use of terminology between sub-samples. Together, these novel analytical approaches provide a narrative regarding the ways in which social innovation is co-conceptualized within nonprofit resource provision, including examining the role of language and power between stakeholder groups.