This article uses case studies to address the sources of social innovation, a major contributor to economic growth and welfare services. Following the findings of user-innovation research in the commercial sector, the authors found that social-problem users innovate new social services for solving specific social problems. They also found that superior problem and solution knowledge is one reason for their ability to do this, that their legitimacy with other potential users is an important factor for their innovations’ diffusion and that the legitimacy of the new social services’ operators with other stakeholders is important for acquiring resources for their projects. This contributes to the understanding of the management of social innovation using the established theoretical framework of user innovation.

Denna studie fann att sociala tjänsteinnovationer inom den sociala sektorn hade sitt ursprung i personer med sociala problem. Dessa personer utnyttjade sin överlägsna probleminsikt och lösningskunskap för att skapa protoyper av sociala tjänster. Deras legitimitet i förhållande till andra personer med likannde sociala problem var också viktig för att mobilisera resurser och sprida användningen av den nya sociala tjänsten. Social innovayion, användardriven innovation, sociala tjänster, legitimitet