Social innovation: a systematic literature review and future agenda research

The concept of Social Innovation (SI) emerged 70 years after the work of pioneering researchers such as Schumpeter. Starting from the linear model of innovation, a systemic and expanded concept of innovation was reached, in which several social agents can be innovative and not only companies. This research proposes to review and synthesize the evolution of innovation until reaching the focus on the analysis in the SI (origins, definition, agents, differences with other forms of creativity, contemporaneity of the concept, evolutionary perspective and political rhetoric). Through the methodology of the systematic review of the literature, an analysis by citations, content analysis and research by the references of the found articles was carried out. The results show a recent and somewhat marginal interest in the notion of SI, but with a contemporary intensification of studies, largely motivated by global socioeconomic and environmental changes. We intend to contribute to the systematization of the scientific knowledge of this field of study.