What is ‘Open Social Innovation’

Social innovation and open innovation are two concepts that have gained prominence in the last decade. Small social innovations have the potential to change the global system, expanding through a collaborative process. Furthermore, the collaborative process is the main characteristic of open innovation. Social and open innovations are relevant and emerging; their relationship with each other has been neglected in the literature. Based on the study of social innovation and open innovation, this chapter proposes a framework about the “open social innovation” and demonstrates how it can be implemented through examples in Brazil and the US. Based on the literature review and these examples, it is evident that “open social innovation” is already a reality in many regions and is a combination of the two original concepts converging in collaborative process.