Purpose

The scaling of social initiatives is of immense importance for public innovation. A key factor in the scaling process is the institutional environment, which plays a key role in supporting and coordinating the scaling process. This environment can be either homogeneous or heterogeneous, i.e. dominated by a few or a variety of public organizations, norms and practices. Both environments have advantages and challenges. However, the academic understanding of the influence of the institutional environment is limited, and a systematic empirical assessment of the relationship between the type of environment and scaling is lacking. The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of homogeneous and heterogeneous environments on the scaling process of social initiatives.

Design/methodology/approach

A comparative qualitative study was conducted in the Dutch social sector, including 48 in-depth interviews with initiators and organizations operating in three different domains – a homogeneous, heterogeneous or mixed environment – in the public sector.

Findings

Homogeneous environments are less supportive of scaling social initiatives than heterogeneous environments, as sharing best practices and collaborating with less-familiar organizations is not common. Heterogeneous environments, however, do not provide coordination of the scaling process, with the risk that public funds are used less efficiently and effectively. Institutional environments with a balance of homogeneity and heterogeneity are best suited for scaling social initiatives.

Originality/value

By combining literature from different research areas and conducting extensive empirical research in different domains of the social sector, the authors' study provides a broad and nuanced picture and brings precision to the authors' understanding of the relationships between the institutional environment and scaling in the public sector.

中文翻译：

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制度环境如何影响社会倡议的扩展过程？荷兰公共部门的实证探索

目的

扩大社会举措对于公共创新至关重要。扩容过程中的一个关键因素是制度环境，它在支持和协调扩容过程中发挥着关键作用。这种环境可以是同质的，也可以是异质的，即由少数或多种公共组织、规范和实践主导。两种环境各有优势和挑战。然而，学术界对制度环境影响的认识有限，缺乏对环境类型与尺度关系的系统实证评估。本文的目的是探讨同质和异质环境对社会倡议规模化过程的影响。

设计/方法论/途径

在荷兰社会部门进行了一项比较定性研究，包括对公共部门三个不同领域（同质、异质或混合环境）的发起者和组织进行了 48 次深度访谈。

发现

与异构环境相比，同质环境不太支持扩展社会计划，因为共享最佳实践并与不太熟悉的组织合作并不常见。然而，异构环境无法提供扩展过程的协调，从而存在公共资金使用效率较低的风险。具有同质性和异质性平衡的制度环境最适合扩大社会倡议。

原创性/价值

通过结合不同研究领域的文献并在社会部门的不同领域进行广泛的实证研究，作者研究提供了广泛而细致的图景，并为作者的研究带来了精确性。了解公共部门的制度环境和规模之间的关系。