Ecosystems of the Social Economy: Elements of an Exploratory Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29173/cjnser778Keywords:
social and solidarity economy ecosystems, innovative business ecosystems, relational ontology, research agenda, social and ecological transitionAbstract
This article presents the results of exploratory research on social and solidarity economy ecosystems. In the discussion section, it introduces a reflective analysis addressing four questions inspired by the advances and learnings emerging from the consulted documents. Finally, it lays the groundwork for a research agenda on the concept of ecosystem in resonance with the transformations currently observed both at the geopolitical level and in terms of the current situation.
Downloads
References
Adner, R. (2016). Ecosystem as structure. Journal of Management, 43(1), 39-58, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206316678451
Arès, M., Boulanger, E. et Deblock, C. (2016). Intégration ou interconnexion ? Revue Interventions économiques, (55). https://doi.org/10.4000/interventionseconomiques.2895
Atluri, V. et Dietz, M. (2023). The ecosystem economy: How to lead to a new age of sectors without borders. Wiley.
Aydalot, P. (dir.). (1986). Milieux innovateurs en Europe. Groupe de recherche européen sur les milieux innovateurs.
Bloom, P. N. et Dees, G. J. (2008). Cultivate your ecosystem. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 6(1), 47-53. https://doi.org/10.48558/QWAW-VP62
Borzaga, C., Galera, G., Franchini, B., Chiomento, S., Nogales, R. et Carini, C. (2020). Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe. Comparative synthesis report. European Commission. https://base.socioeco.org/docs/social_enterprises_and_their_ecosystems_in_europe._comparative_synthesis_report.pdf
Bouchard, M. J. (2021). L’innovation et l’économie sociale au cœur du modèle québécois. Entretiens avec Benoît Lévesque. Presses de l’Université du Québec.
Bouchard, M. J., Fontan, J.-M. et Lévesque, B. (2025, à paraître). The ecosystems of social and solidarity economy: Essential for the challenges of our time. Dans M. J. Bouchard et D. Rousselière (dir.), Modern guide to the social and solidarity economy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Bouchard, M. J. et Roy, H. (2024). Liste des études de cas incluses dans la Base de données sur les innovations sociales (BDIS) du CRISES au 1er janvier 2024. Les Cahiers du CRISES (hors-série), HS2401.
Bouchard, M. J., Trudelle, C., Briand, L., Klein, J.-L., Lévesque, B., Longtin, D. et Pelletier, M. (2015). A relational database to understand social innovation and its impact on social transformation. Dans A. Nicholls, J. Simon et M. Gabriel (dir.), New frontiers in social innovation research (p. 69-85). Pelgrave MacMillan.
Bourgeois, L. (1896). Solidarité. Armand Colin et Cie Éditeurs.
Catala, B., Savall, T. et Chaves-Avila, R. (2023). From entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems to the social economy ecosystem. Journal of Business Research, 163, 113932. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.113932
Crevoisier, O. (2001). L’approche par les milieux innovateurs : état des lieux et perspectives. Revue d’économie régionale et urbaine, (1), 153-165. https://doi.org/10.3917/reru.011.0153
Curley, M., Donnellan, B. et Costello, G. J. (2013). Innovation ecosystems: A conceptual framework. Dans B. Salmelin (dir.), Open innovation 2013: Open innovation 2.0 (p. 18-29). European Commission. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2759/87245
Domanski, D. et Kaletka, C. (2018). Social innovation ecosystems. Dans H. Jürgen, C. Kaletka, A. Schröder et M. Zirngiebl, Atlas of social innovation. New practices for a better future (p. 207-211). SI Drive. https://www.socialinnovationatlas.net/fileadmin/PDF/Atlas_of_Social_Innovation.pdf
Ensminger, J. (2017). Le management par la confiance de l’écosystème d’affaires: le cas des systèmes des transport intelligents (N° national de thèse : 2015SACLV035) [Thèse de doctorat, Université de Paris-Sarclay et Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin en Yvelines].
Escobar, A., Osterweil, M. et K. Sharma. (2024). Relationality. An emergent politics of life beyond the human. Bloomsbury Publishing.
European Commission. (2011). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Social business initiative creating a favourable climate for social enterprises, key stakeholders in the social economy and innovation (Document n° 52011DC0682). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52011DC0682
European Commission. (2015). A map of social enterprises and their eco-systems in Europe. Synthesis report. Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. https://euricse.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Synthesis-report-FINAL.pdf
Fontan, J. M. et Lévesque, B. (2023). The institutional ecosystem. Dans I. Yi (dir.), Encyclopedia of the social and solidarity: A collective work of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on SSE (UNTFSSE) (p. 443-451). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Frère, B. et Laville, J. L. (2022). La fabrique de l'émancipation. Repenser la critique du capitalisme à partir des expériences démocratiques, écologiques et solidaires. Seuil.
Gravie-Plande, F. (2021). L’écosystème social territorial, émergence et caractérisation. Une modélisation par la valeur à travers l’auto-ethnographie (N° national de thèse : 2021LIMO0001) [Thèse de doctorat, Université de Limoges]. HALtheses. https://theses.hal.science/tel-03523971v1
Hansson, J., Björk, F., Lundborg, D. et Olofsson, L.-E. (dir.). (2014). An ecosystem for social innovation in Sweden: A strategic research and innovation agenda. Lund University.
Hazenberg, R., Bajwa-Patel, M., Mazzei, M., Roy, M. J. et Baglioni, S. (2016a). The role of institutional and stakeholder networks in shaping social enterprise ecosystems in Europe. Social Enterprise Journal, 12(3), 302-321. https://doi.org/10.1108/SEJ-10-2016-0044
Hazenberg, R., Bajwa-Patel, M., Mazzei, M., Roy, M. J. et Baglioni, S. (2016b). A comparative overview of social enterprise ‘ecosystems’ in Scotland and England: An evolutionary perspective. International Review of Sociology, 26(2), 205-222. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2016.1181395
Jacobides, M. G. (2019). In the ecosystem economy, what’s your strategy? Harvard Business Review, 97(5), 128-137.
Koenig, G. (2012). Le concept d’écosystème d’affaires revisité. M@n@gement, 15(2), 209-224. https://doi.org/10.3917/mana.152.0209
Lapointe, P. A. (dir.). (2025, à paraître). Étudier les innovations sociales. Théories pratiques et recherches. Presses de l’Université du Québec.
Lefèvre, S. et Audet, R. (2016). La mise en marché alternative de l’alimentation à Montréal. De la niche d’innovation à une transition du secteur alimentaire ? Revue Interventions économiques, (54). https://doi.org/10.4000/interventionseconomiques.2689
Leroux, P. (1839). De l’humanité, de son principe et de son avenir. Perrotin.
Lévesque, B. (2016). Économie sociale et solidaire et entrepreneur social : vers quels nouveaux écosystèmes ? Revue Interventions économiques, (54). https://doi.org/10.4000/interventionseconomiques.2802
Lévesque, B. et Malo, M.-C. (2024). Regards sur les Lois : comparaison de l’ESS en France et de l’ES au Québec. RECMA, 1(372-373), 72-86. https://doi.org/10.3917/recma.372.0076
Lundvall, B. Ä. et Johnson, B. (1994). The learning economy. Journal of Industry Studies, 1(2), 23-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/13662719400000002
Maillat, D., Quevit, M. et Senn, L. (dir.). (1993). Réseaux d’innovation et milieux innovateurs: un pari pour le développement régional. EDES.
Moore, J. F. (1993). Predators and prey: A new ecology of competition. Harvard Business Review, 71(3), 75-86.
Moore, J. F. (1996). The death of competition: Leadership and strategy in the age of business ecosystems. Harper Business.
Morin, E. (1990). Introduction à la pensée complexe. ESF.
Nelson, R. R. et Winter, S. G. (1982). An evolutionary theory of economic change. Harvard University Press.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2023). Mapping social and solidarity economic ecosystem around the world: Understanding the country fact sheets. https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/topics/policy-sub-issues/social-economy-and-social-innovation/country-fact-sheets-sse-methodological-note.pdf
Pel, B., Wittmayer, J., Dorland, J. et Søgaard Jørgensen, M. (2019). Unpacking the social innovation ecosystem: An empirically grounded typology of empowering network constellations. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 33(3), 311-336. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2019.1705147
Polanyi, K. (1977). The livelihood of man (H. W. Pearson, dir.). Academic Press.
Polanyi, K. (1983). La grande transformation. Aux origines politiques et économiques de notre temps (M. Angeno, trad.). Gallimard.
Porter, M. E. (1985). The competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. Free Press.
Torre, A. (2015). Théorie du développement territorial. Géographie, Économie, Société, 17(3), 273-288. https://doi.org/10.3166/ges.17.273-288
Tsakanika, L. (2014). Building social innovation ecosystems: A capability approach [Mémoire de maîtrise, Universitat de Valencia]. https://base.socioeco.org/docs/tfm_ltsakanika_2017_building_social_innovation_ecosystems._a_capability_approach.pdf
Sales, A. (1970). L’entreprise et son environnement. Sociologie et sociétés, 2(1), 107-122. https://doi.org/10.7202/001672ar
Spash, C. L. et Smith, T. (2019). Of ecosystems and economies: Re-connecting economics with reality. Real-world Economics Review, (87), 212-229.
Wurth, B., Stam, E. et Spigel, B. (2022). Toward an entrepreneurial ecosystem research program. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 46(3), 729-778. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258721998948
Zerdani, T. et Bouchard, M. J. (2016), Réseau de la finance solidaire et responsable au Québec. Co-construction d’un champ institutionnel dans l’écosystème d’économie sociale et solidaire. Revue Interventions économiques, (54). https://doi.org/10.4000/interventionseconomiques.2727
Zhu, C. et Wang, S. (2023). Nature and Biodiversity. Why measuring the economic value of ecosystems is important. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/02/an-ecosystems-economic-value-can-now-be-measured-heres-how/
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Marie J. Bouchard, Benoît Lévesque, Jean-Marc Fontan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Submission of an original manuscript to the Canadian Journal of Nonprofit and Social Economy Research / Revue canadienne de recherche sur les OSBL et l'économie sociale [thereafter CJNSER] will be taken to mean that it represents original work not previously published, and that it is not being considered elsewhere for publication.
The journal takes the stance that the publication of scholarly research is meant to disseminate knowledge and, in a not-for-profit regime, benefits neither publisher nor author financially. It sees itself as having an obligation to its authors and to society to make content available online now that the technology allows for such a possibility. In keeping with this principle, the journal will publish all of its issues online.
Authors who publish in CJNSER agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). This licence allows anyone to copy and distribute the article provided that appropriate attribution is given. For details of the rights an author grants users of their work, please see the licence summary and the full licence.
[Content published between 2010 and 2019-10 was licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada (CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 CA) License. Content published between 2019-10 to 2023-12 was licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License. Content published after 2023-12 is licensed under the Creative Commons 4.0 International (CC BY) License.]
