The Social Innovation Think Tank: incubation in isolation

The Social Innovation Think Tank

The Social Innovation Think Tank series explores the power of social innovation in the modern world; sharing its necessity and capacity to challenge the status quo.

The monthly series is hosted by Dr Neil Stott and Professor Paul Tracey, co-directors of the Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation. They interview academics from many disciplines, who discuss their motivation to strive towards to a more equitable and sustainable world.

Episode Four – Incubation in Isolation

In the fourth episode of The Social Innovation Think Tank, Dr Neil Stott and Professor Paul Tracey discuss the issues related to ‘Incubation in Isolation: supporting social entrepreneurs during a pandemic’.

The discussion, with Dr Belinda Bell from Cambridge Social Ventures, Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation and Nicole Helwig from Centre for Social Enterprise, Memorial University of Newfoundland, sheds light on the impacts of the pandemic on social entrepreneurs in not only the UK but also Canada.

“I suspect the reason that so many of our ventures are doing so well and struggling with overwhelm is to do with the sectors they’re in. Unfortunately, in many ways, lots of ventures are in B2C businesses […] but what we’ve seen during lockdown is that very many of our entrepreneurs have still been able to connect with their consumers obviously via the internet, but their businesses have been – in many, many cases – scaling. That’s much the problem we’re hearing”.

Dr Belinda Bell