Applying social innovations in the manufacturing industry - How does it influence financial performance?

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2021-11-05
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en
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This thesis wants to research the influence of social innovations on the financial performance of Dutch firms in the manufacturing industry. The research question is stated as: ‘What is the influence of social innovations on the financial performance of Dutch firms in the manufacturing industry?’. Social innovations are part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) innovations. Social innovations are focused on using knowledge, increasing innovation power, firm productivity and competitiveness while influencing the firm surroundings, sustainability and society. This thesis wants to find out how social innovations influence two indicators of financial performance, ‘revenue growth’ and ‘production costs’. In the theoretical framework this came to two separate hypotheses. This thesis hypothesizes that social innovations have an increasing effect on the revenue growth of a firm. It is also hypothesized that social innovations decrease the production costs of a firm. Both quantitative and qualitative research has been conducted. The European Manufacturing Survey (EMS) is used and four interviews were held at manufacturing firms. In the results, no significant relationship has been found between social innovations and revenue growth. There was a significant negative relationship found between social innovations and production costs. Overall, this thesis concluded that social innovations do influence financial performance of a firm, primarily the production costs.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen
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