Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

As an apparent means to solve the Grand Challenges of the 21st Century, several good ideas exist, but they do not all turn into social innovations (SI). In some cases, because they are considered too expensive, or undesirable, or simply because they are not effective compared to existing solutions. This observation raises questions about the existence of several barriers throughout the innovation process and underline a problematic issue which is the role of the various stakeholders, particularly the local authorities, in tackling the socio-economic challenges through social innovation. Indeed, the main aims of this paper are: to explore the essence of social innovation, to identify the factors influencing the process of social innovation and to confront the theory and the reality within the Casablanca-Settat region.
Tough, it seems that theoretically the fact of focusing on the factors which influence the SI process will improve our understanding of how social innovation could take place in reality. That, consequently, could greatly enhance interventions aimed at increasing the implementation, efficiency and sustainability of social innovation in regional development practices.
Thus, by following a qualitative method and mobilizing theoretical inputs and data collection, we intend to explore the concept regionally and to emphasize the growing need for social innovation in Morocco and mainly in terms of regional development –Casablanca-Settat region-.