Social Innovation & Community Engagement: Wesfarmers Case Study

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of social innovation and community engagement, focusing on a practical application through a proposed 'social supermarket' initiative by Wesfarmers in the Merrylands area of Australia. The report delves into the theoretical understanding of social innovation, including its typology, approaches to social entrepreneurship, and the challenges of addressing 'wicked problems.' It outlines Wesfarmers' plan to establish a social supermarket that offers affordable groceries to low-income residents, creating employment opportunities and promoting a balanced diet while minimizing environmental impact through renewable energy and sustainable practices. The report also addresses the financial, environmental, and ethical implications of the social innovation, emphasizing its contribution to the common good by fostering socio-economic development and promoting healthy eating habits. Challenges related to collaboration and planning are acknowledged, providing a balanced perspective on the feasibility and potential impact of the proposed social supermarket.

Running head: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Community Engagement: Building Strengths and Capability
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s note:

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Executive Summary
In this study, social innovation concept is described from both theoretical and practical approach.
Social innovation is the method of social transformation that relates the social entrepreneurship.
Social entrepreneurship process delivers the growth of the social economy and it is associated
with the economic growth and economic inclusion. This discussion focuses on social innovation
with community engagement. At the very first part, theoretical understanding of the social
innovation related to the typology of social innovation, approaches to social entrepreneurship
and wicked problems of social innovation have been discussed. Community development section
of Wesfarmers can take the initiative of establishing the ‘social supermarket'. The social
supermarket is the concept of giving the groceries and food products at a cheap price to the
poverty-stricken people. This social supermarket will be established in Merrylands area of
Australia as this suburb is poverty stricken. This social supermarket will meet the common
people's needs of having the balanced diet and Wesfarmers will give employment to the common
people as well. This social supermarket will use renewable energy and the organisation will also
provide disposable jute bags to carry the products. Wesfarmers will not make direct profit from
this social supermarket; however, it will provide an indirect profit of having more customer base
and brand image of the organisation. Wesfarmers can face challenge regarding collaboration and
Wesfarmers will also face the issue of lack of planning.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Discussion of social innovation and community engagement theory.............................................4
Description of proposed social innovation: Social Supermarket.....................................................7
Discuss a significant implementation challenge............................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference List................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Social innovation is about the practice to promote collaborative, innovative action and
creative thinking that should address the social needs. This must use the experience that should
be concerned to bring up with approaches and new solutions. Social innovation is the practice of
utilising creativity that can help to develop solutions that improve the well-being of the society
and people (Voorberg et al. 2015). Social innovation aims to give a novel condition which
should be effective, efficient and sustainable to provide value to the society, not just to the single
individual.
In this study, Wesfarmers is selected as Wesfarmers provides community help to the
subsidiaries. Wesfarmers has an impact on the society as the organisation always tries to meet
the needs of the community with providing clothing, employment and they pay taxes to the
government (Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au 2018). Wesfarmers is going to come up with the
concept of ‘social supermarket’ for the poor people to improve the poverty issue, employment
issue, community infrastructure and community engagement in Merrylands, Sydney.
Discussion of social innovation and community engagement theory
Social innovations are new concepts, ideas and strategies for the organisations to meet the
needs of the society of different elements that can be from education and working condition to
community development and people’s health. As stated by Phillips et al. (2015), social
innovation concept is associated with the social process of innovation, techniques, open source
method and innovation which must have social purposes. Social innovation can be defined as the
process of deploying and developing effective solutions to environmental and social issues

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supporting the social progress. Social innovation can be described in a way through which the
people interact with the environment and these interactions are associated with the thinking and
behaviour of the people (Cajaiba-Santana 2014).
In addition, a wicked problem is a cultural or social problem which is very difficult to
solve for mainly four reasons, contradictory knowledge, different opinions are involved, large
economic issues and interconnected nature of the problems. In society, poverty is connected with
the education and poverty is also liked up with the nutrition. As opined by Calic & Mosakowski
(2016), wicked problems do not have any definitive formulation and solutions to the wicked
problems must be bad or good. There is no such template to follow to solve the wicked problems
and there will always be more than one explanation for the wicked problems.
Approaches to social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is the process of growing and creating venture where the
motivation of the entrepreneurs is to proceed with the social changes. In this situation, the
entrepreneurs create the changes through the founding of the new organisations. According to
Choi & Majumdar (2014), social entrepreneurship is the process of addressing all the social
changes from the inside of the established firms and these types of entrepreneurs create changes
by leveraging the capabilities and resources of the established organisation. In addition, social
entrepreneurship can be described as the process of inter-organisational activities which must
facilitate the alternative combinations of the people, ideas, resources and places to address the
social changes. The social entrepreneurs can create the changes through platforms which support
collective efforts between new and established organisations.
Typology of social innovation

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Typology of social innovation concept encompasses the systematic framework and it is
applied in the evaluation of sustainability.
Socio-juridical innovation It is the innovation of the laws and legal framework
Socio-analytical innovation It is the innovation associated with the sense-making
framework and analytical
Socio-ecological innovation It is the innovation of the human interaction with the
environment
Socio-economic evaluation It is associated with the innovation of business models and
economic models
Socio-technical innovation This innovation is associated with the human and
technological interaction
Socio-organisational innovation This is innovation is associated with the innovation of
organisational arrangement
Socio-cultural innovation This innovation is related to the non-formal institutions and
change is celebrated within the organisation
Socio-political innovation It is an innovation of governance and political system
Socio-ideological innovation This innovation is related to the ideological frameworks and
the mindset paradigms
Socio-ethical innovation It is the innovation of the ethical framework that deals with
the normative frameworks
Table 1: Typology of social innovation
(Source: El Ebrashi 2013)

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Social innovation can help the organisations to establish the values for the environment
as well as the society to do the things in different ways; mainly for the civil society and the
private sector.
Description of proposed social innovation: Social Supermarket
Wesfarmers is one of the largest organisations in Australia and it has several subsidiaries
which are doing well in supermarket industry in Australia, Coles, Target and K-Mart.
Wesfarmers has been providing support to the non-profit organisation as well. Wesfarmers earns
98% of the profit from Australia and it always wants to impact positively on the society.
Wesfarmers makes community partnership so that the community gets supports from
Wesfarmers. Wesfarmers believes that strong business situation is underpinned by inclusive and
cohesive community environment (Sustainability.wesfarmers.com.au 2018). Wesfarmers has
long-term community commitment that brings initiatives for both economic and social outcomes.
Wesfarmers is thinking about to operate a ‘social supermarket’ in Merrylands, Australia. The
western section of Merrylands is a poverty-stricken suburb in Australia and the government has
been planning to improve the condition of this place through employing residential boom and
employment. Wesfarmers is planning to start a ‘social supermarket' in this place for the people
who do not get proper food and the price of this food items and groceries will be lowest in entire
Australia. Wesfarmers will take help from its subsidiaries K-Mart, Target and Coles to provide
the low-cost products and home-based groceries to the poverty-stricken people. The supermarket
will sell cheaper than the usual price to people receiving welfare payments and tax credits. In
order to build up the social supermarkets, Wesfarmers will invest the money and it is asking the
members of Coles, K-Mart and Target to pay $5 membership on weekly basis.

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This social supermarket will provide the cheaper price so that the customers can
purchase a range of products including frozen foods, fresh products, dried fruits, vegetables and
goods. The stock will be supplied from the nearby Coles, K-Mart and Target in the form of
charities. This concept of the social supermarket will bring a smile in the faces of common poor
people and they will get the products at cheaper than the usual price (Klindzic et al. 2016). In
addition, Wesfarmers is thinking about to provide employment selecting the candidates from the
poor section of Merrylands, Australia. These people get chance to build the skills, personal
development and money management. Wesfarmers is selecting the plot to establish the social
supermarket in Merrylands and this initiative will design to empower the customers, it will move
the people out of food poverty and Wesfarmers is planning to track the food waste. This concept
is different from the food bank and Wesfarmers is aiming to help the people to develop the
emotional and social well-being of the common people. Wesfarmers will not make much profit
from this venture; however, it will work as the corporate social responsibility of the organisation
and it can increase the brand image of the organisation as well.
Discussion of the financial, environmental and ethical implications of social innovation and
how social innovation contributes to the common good
Social impact is the primary objective of the philanthropic investor and the investors plan
to achieve to generate financial returns as a source of economic sufficiency for the investors.
Social innovation can be interpreted as a potent force for leveraging social impact and social
innovation is the experiment of doing the risks, the investors do have narrow financial
expectations (Maric et al. 2015). Wesfarmers has to be aware of the dilemma and it can break the
dilemma by expecting steady financial returns. This social supermarket will provide the products
and good at cheap price; therefore, the organisation does not have any direct profit. Wesfarmers

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will try to recognise the financial performance of Target, Coles and K-Mart as this initiative will
accelerate the brand value of the organisation. Merrylands people will be grateful to Wesfarmers
as the organisation is trying to address the un-addressed needs. Financial returns will not be large
as Wesfarmers will not keep any profit percentage from this shop and it will also provide
employment opportunity to the common people. Using this social innovation, Wesfarmers can
expand the supermarket subsidiaries in more regions.
Wesfarmers will not use any renewable resources as the energy. This social supermarket
will use renewable power energy and it will recycle the water for later use. In addition, in front
of the supermarket, Wesfarmers is thinking to plant a sapling. This garden will provide oxygen
and shadow to the common people. This social supermarket will not emit any harmful gas as it is
not a manufacturing centre. This social innovation is the plan to restore the eco-system and
provide protection to the environment (Dowler & Lambie-Mumford 2015). The research team
will look into the matter of food waste and the wastages of food packets and layers will be
recycled. In addition, Wesfarmers will provide jute bag to the people to carry the items after
purchasing as jute doe not harm the environment.
Wesfarmers will follow the ethical framework as it stems from operational principles and
the products of the ‘social supermarket’ will not harm the society. All products will be fresh and
no product will cross the expiry dates. The organisation promises the people to provide best
products at cheap price. The process of ‘social supermarket’ will be collaborative and partnership
will be done with the people across the nearby areas (Dees 2017).
The social supermarket will assist to demonstrate to the residents about achieving the
socio-economic development along with the physical regeneration of the Merrylands area. Social

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supermarket highlights benefits of healthy eating in the poorest section of Sydney. This social
market will give the provision of giving subsidised products in cheap price and the aim of this
social market is to provide a healthy diet to the people (Habibi et al. 2014). The rising issue of
interconnectedness, inequality and the lowering level of faith among the community people can
be solved through the social entrepreneurship process.
Discuss a significant implementation challenge
According to Herrera (2015), social innovation cannot be conceived as the privilege of
any legal structure or organisational and this type of innovation needs the partnership of
business, non-profit organisations and governmental help. In recent times, maximum of the
organisations are doing the innovation through the technologies, whereas the social innovation is
social in nature. Innovation must emerge in the in the social realm of experienced reality and the
social dimension comes from the human interaction. Wesfarmers can face the issue of
communicating value objectively as the social enterprises need to deliver more than commercial
values. The social value of Wesfarmers' is to provide profit to the society and the bottom line of
the organisation is to earn revenue. Wesfarmers can face the issue of selecting the ‘real' poor
people in the community as the strategy will be to make the membership to purchase the cheap
goods from the supermarket. The long-term focus will be a challenge to the organisation as
Wesfarmers needs to understand the unique value proposition of this social supermarket. It is
very hard to true to the mission of social innovation as Wesfarmers might focus on profit making
in a later stage. The successful organisation always reviews the strategy and it tries to improve
this (Hollebeek et al. 2017). This social supermarket may face the difficulty of making the
balance between diversification and revenue. The core ethics of the organisation are to

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implement the social entrepreneurship with correct planning. Wesfarmers needs to make a
balance to deliver the commercial values.
Conclusion
It has been observed that social innovation is the concept with the inter-sectoral approach
and social innovation mainly focuses on the innovation that can help the society. There are many
types of social innovation that the organisation can take to improve the condition with giving the
priorities. In addition, social supermarket concept can be taken by Wesfarmers as this innovation
will provide the cheap food to the poverty-stricken people in Merrylands. This innovation will
provide cheap goods and it will also provide employment opportunity to the people. Wesfarmers
will use this CSR activity as the part of the promotion and the customers base of the organisation
will be increased through this.

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Reference List
Cajaiba-Santana, G., 2014. Social innovation: Moving the field forward. A conceptual
framework. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 82, pp.42-51.
Calic, G. & Mosakowski, E., 2016. Kicking off social entrepreneurship: how a sustainability
orientation influences crowdfunding success. Journal of Management Studies, 53(5), pp.738-
767.
Choi, N. & Majumdar, S., 2014. Social entrepreneurship as an essentially contested concept:
Opening a new avenue for systematic future research. Journal of business venturing, 29(3),
pp.363-376.
Dees, J.G., 2017. 1 The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. In Case of Studies in Social
Entrepreneurship and Sustainability(pp. 34-42). Routledge.
Dowler, E. & Lambie-Mumford, H., 2015. Introduction: Hunger, food and social policy in
austerity. Social Policy and Society, 14(3), pp.411-415.
El Ebrashi, R., 2013. Social entrepreneurship theory and sustainable social impact. Social
Responsibility Journal, 9(2), pp.188-209.
Habibi, M.R., Laroche, M. & Richard, M.O., 2014. The roles of brand community and
community engagement in building brand trust on social media. Computers in Human
Behavior, 37, pp.152-161.
Herrera, M.E.B., 2015. Creating a competitive advantage by institutionalizing corporate social
innovation. Journal of Business Research, 68(7), pp.1468-1474.