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From Spinout Dissonance to Ecosystem Readiness: Scaling Democratic Innovation through Social Science Entrepreneurship

From Spinout Dissonance to Ecosystem Readiness: Scaling Democratic Innovation through Social Science Entrepreneurship

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DOI	10.20900/jsr20250079
刊名	Journal of Sustainability Research JSR
年，卷(期)	2025, 7(4)
作者	Mikko Rask*,Camille Thibert,
作者单位	Centre for Consumer Society Research, University of Helsinki, Snellmaninkatu 10, Helsinki 00180, Finland ; Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Snellmaninkatu 10, Helsinki 00180, Finland ;
摘要	Contemporary sustainability challenges cannot be resolved solely through technological solutions. As democracy itself faces crises of legitimacy and capacity, the social sciences hold underused potential to renew the societal foundations of sustainable governance. Nevertheless, social-science-based spinout companies remain rare, revealing a persistent institutional blind spot at the intersection of research, business, and democracy. This study offers a transdisciplinary case analysis of an SSH-based spinout emerging from a Nordic university, situated within a landscape in which only a small fraction of invention disclosures and spinouts originate in SSH fields. Drawing on the amplification typology from sustainability transitions research and the Quintuple Helix framework, the analysis examines how internal structuring, external collaboration, and systemic reframing interact within an innovation ecosystem shaped by academic, governmental, and market logics. The findings identify recurrent institutional tensions that we conceptualise as spinout dissonance, which arise when normative, public-good-oriented ambitions confront institutional arrangements calibrated to technological and market-centred innovation pathways. Addressing these frictions requires rethinking ecosystem readiness through three interrelated shifts: reframing the legitimacy of SSH-based entrepreneurship, supporting hybrid academic–entrepreneurial roles, and designing purpose-fit instruments for early-stage, learning-oriented social-science innovation. The paper contributes to sustainable governance scholarship by demonstrating how reflexive, value-driven ventures can connect democratic renewal with sustainability transitions through institutional learning across the research–innovation interface. It further shows that strengthening the translational capacity of innovation ecosystems is essential for enabling SSH contributions to democratic and sustainability challenges amid global democratic erosion.
Abstract	Contemporary sustainability challenges cannot be resolved solely through technological solutions. As democracy itself faces crises of legitimacy and capacity, the social sciences hold underused potential to renew the societal foundations of sustainable governance. Nevertheless, social-science-based spinout companies remain rare, revealing a persistent institutional blind spot at the intersection of research, business, and democracy. This study offers a transdisciplinary case analysis of an SSH-based spinout emerging from a Nordic university, situated within a landscape in which only a small fraction of invention disclosures and spinouts originate in SSH fields. Drawing on the amplification typology from sustainability transitions research and the Quintuple Helix framework, the analysis examines how internal structuring, external collaboration, and systemic reframing interact within an innovation ecosystem shaped by academic, governmental, and market logics. The findings identify recurrent institutional tensions that we conceptualise as spinout dissonance, which arise when normative, public-good-oriented ambitions confront institutional arrangements calibrated to technological and market-centred innovation pathways. Addressing these frictions requires rethinking ecosystem readiness through three interrelated shifts: reframing the legitimacy of SSH-based entrepreneurship, supporting hybrid academic–entrepreneurial roles, and designing purpose-fit instruments for early-stage, learning-oriented social-science innovation. The paper contributes to sustainable governance scholarship by demonstrating how reflexive, value-driven ventures can connect democratic renewal with sustainability transitions through institutional learning across the research–innovation interface. It further shows that strengthening the translational capacity of innovation ecosystems is essential for enabling SSH contributions to democratic and sustainability challenges amid global democratic erosion.
关键词	democratic innovation; sustainable governance; social science entrepreneurship; spinout dissonance; innovation ecosystems; institutional learning; sustainability transitions
KeyWord	democratic innovation; sustainable governance; social science entrepreneurship; spinout dissonance; innovation ecosystems; institutional learning; sustainability transitions
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Mikko Rask*,Camille Thibert. From Spinout Dissonance to Ecosystem Readiness: Scaling Democratic Innovation through Social Science Entrepreneurship [J]. Journal of Sustainability Research. 2025; 7; (4). - .

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