Home » Session 3: Key Features of Incubation for Sustainable Innovation
Session 3: Key Features of Incubation for Sustainable Innovation
To summarise, the key features of social innovation incubators are:
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Locality/place awareness
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Community connections
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Participatory/community focused approach
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Alignment of sustainability values with incubatees
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Social capital
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Sustainability orientated training, networks, mentoring etc.
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Sustainability outcomes
These features translate into how these incubators select their incubatees, the networks they make available and the mentorship and resources they have to offer. The training provided by a social innovation incubator also differs from more traditional business incubators due to its sustainability orientation. The networks and mentors it has access to, workshops and training it runs and other activities will have a sustainability orientation. The incubator looks to foster incubatees to address a community social need or a need of the local area, such as issues of unemployment, segregation, environmental degradation and isolation of aging and vulnerable populations (Pieri et al. 2020).
Social Innovation Incubators in Practice
Established in 2002, the Centre for Civil Society and Governance at The University of Hong Kong is the first research centre in Hong Kong dedicated to enhancing knowledge of civil society and to the attainment of a sustainable society through community-based innovative solutions. As part of this approach, action research projects to cultivate sustainability through social incubation have been launched. These projects involve the incubation of innovations and businesses for sustainability in different sectors of society. In particular, the Centre’s work covers incubation for sustainability in the business sector, particularly for small and medium enterprises, building sustainable communities and incubation schemes for revitalising rural areas.
Under the Centre, different incubation opportunities are developed to mobilise change agents from the wider community to act towards sustainability. This is done by providing resources and support for the incubation of social innovative approaches to addressing sustainability problems as well as the implementation of these innovations. In addition to the Programme’s support of social innovation, a variety of incubation methods are developed and their impacts assessed. What is common amongst the incubation methods is that they remain community-based (bringing together community of place and community of interests), contribute towards sustainability, help to empower individuals to work collaboratively and sustain the impact.
Sustainability in business
The Partnership for Sustainability Leadership in Business was launched in response to the need to build a more sustainable business sector in Hong Kong, particularly with small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The project is based on collaboration with academic institutions, businesses, regulators and the wider community to support the business sector and to develop sustainable value chains. The core strategy adopted for the project is to create new and additional partnerships for sustainability outcomes between large corporations and their upstream and downstream value chain SME partners.
The project includes a resource hub, which provides a plethora of resources, from best practices cases to sustainability self-check tools, roadmaps and practical guidebooks. Experiential training and learning is also provided through practical workshops that contribute to developing participants capabilities in advancing sustainability initiatives in their businesses. This involves practical activities led by professionals in the area of sustainability development and is composed of talks on the latest developments in the area, problem solving exercises and interactive session.
A mentorship scheme is also held under the project. This includes a coaching session, which connects and matches sustainability practitioners in SMEs with experienced sustainability leaders. This allows the exchange of ideas and experiences as well as one-on-one coaching. The mentees will be aided in identifying the strengths and opportunities for their organisation, acquire a greater appreciation of the value of sustainability in business and a better understanding of its achievement.
Sustainability in communities
The Social Innovations for Sustainable Communities programme aims to build social entrepreneurship for sustainability. The programme targets sustainability and ageing issues in Hong Kong that range from individual behaviour to cultural and value change, and systemic enhancement. The social entrepreneurs nurtured under the programme are drawn from different sustainability domains and are committed to sustainability though a commoning approach. Taking a commoning approach requires a collective approach to manage shared resources, with emphasis on equitable access and use as well as long-term stewardship. In support of these and other social entrepreneurs, the programme develops a comprehensive learning programme and establishes an incubation platform where participants can easily access information and knowledge of SEs as well as document and share their experiences among the peers.
Sustainability in rural areas
In an effort to revive abandoned villages and forge a sustainable path for them in Hong Kong, the Sustainable Lai Chi Wo: Living Water & Community Revitalization - An Agricultural-led Action, Engagement and Incubation Programme at Lai Chi Wo was initiated by the University of Hong Kong (HKU). The initial four-year project made significant progress in raising public awareness, rebuilding the community and livelihoods, leading to the return of Indigenous villagers and the introduction of new settlers. This allowed the next four-year project ‘HSBC Rural Sustainability’, starting in 2017, to expand to mobilising actions of the local community and community of interests for the benefit of the wider society. It also aims to incubate a set of viable models that could be applicable to nearby villages in Hong Kong and similar rural areas situated in the urban context in other parts of the world.
From this project, a host of incubators have also been developed. These include the establishment of a community kitchen, LocoKitchen, as the first local incubation platform for social innovation on local food. Having obtained food production related licenses and installed the relevant machinery and infrastructure, the shared kitchen intends to serve local farmers, producers and start-ups, nurturing community-based local agriculture and production development and incubating food-based social entrepreneurs.
The ‘Rural in Action Start-up Scheme’, which nurtures the development of diversified business models for rural vibrancy, has also been launched under the Lai Chi Wo programme. The criteria of these start-ups incubated by this scheme is that they must be environmental consciousness, financially sustainable, culturally appropriate and socially beneficial (to the local community and/or wider society). Funding is provided to successful projects that are implemented in any rural area in Hong Kong, so that the networks, resources and impact of the Lai Chi Wo Programme can be extended beyond the village. The Scheme also facilitates participants in connecting with local stakeholders and to access local knowledge. Advice on business set up and ways to enhance contributions to sustainability issues, promotion through the Programme website and social media platforms is also provided. These enable participants to further develop their project design and facilitate them to achieve greater impact.
In terms of ideation, interested parties or individuals who need support in developing a proposal for a start-up scheme can participate in sustainability hackathons. Here, passionate individuals are gathered and encouraged to collaborate to develop innovative ideas related to the chosen theme. Through the hackathon process participants are provided with a basic understanding of problems relevant to rural communities, guided through a process of brainstorming, idea development, peer learning and coaching by mentors and then they develop a proposal. The Hackathon also provides an opportunity for participants to test the acceptability of their ideas and build their networks.