Blog author: Torino Social Impact & Fondazione Piemonte Innova
Enabling organisations, such as clusters, networks and business support organisations, are increasingly being recognised as drivers of competitiveness, inclusion and innovation for specific ecosystems, and as such, the proximity and social economy one. Exploring the potential of emerging technologies in addressing social issues represents a crucial challenge for Social Economy Enabling Organisations (SEEOs) in Europe and of course in Italy. At a time when the social economy ecosystem is at the heart of significant reforms and undergoing profound transformation, it is essential to ensure that the path to undertake is well planned from both strategic and operational perspectives.
Italian stakeholders, both public and private, are looking at the main opportunities for the social economy organisations from the legislative, economic, financial, social and cultural context. The main interest is to invest and support these organisations (currently 398.000 according to Euricse’s new statistics portal on social economy) especially the smallest ones, in enhancing their competences with a strong focus on digital skills and the ability to think of new business models, to better tackle their needs and challenges. In fact, according to different analysis, reports and surveys as well as the experiences of Torino Social Impact and Fondazione Piemonte Innova (FPI), the main challenges that the Italian Social Economy Enabling Organisations face in relation to digitalisation are due to hight implementation costs, and lack of internal personnel and knowledge. Italian SEEOs currently use digital tools mainly for emailing and communication, social media and digital marketing, managing part of their work. Most of them still do not use data analysis tools and democratic decision-making tools. In addition, there is also the need to assess how innovation (not only of processes but also of products and services) and digitalisation can be of support. Furthermore, the social economy ecosystem is particularly at risk right now due to its extreme economic fragility and the difficulty in retaining and attracting experienced managers. As a result, it needs to change and adapt its service models. Thus, making of extreme importance the investments and focus mentioned before.
Already in a 2020 interview, Mario Calderini, professor at the Politecnico di Milano, member of the GECES and spokesperson for Torino Social Impact, explained that the role of a territorial platform supporting local development is to function as an experimental laboratory for effective trajectories of change. According to Calderini, the incorporation of technology not only transforms intervention models, but offers social entrepreneurs the opportunity to create economic value and scale their models, making them more attractive to investors and partners.
Torino Social Impact is in fact an alliance among 360 companies, public and private entities, universities, third sector, financial institutions aimed at fostering the local ecosystem for the social economy and the impact finance making Turin one of the best places in the world to do business and finance pursuing goals of economic viability along with objectives of social impact; it is a cluster and a Social Economy Enabling Organisation gathering skills, activities, services to strengthen and promote the local ecosystem in the framework of Agenda 2030.
Torino Social Impact’s strategic plan includes the Tech4Good program, which aims to explore the potential of emerging technologies as a response to social challenges to put the following question at the center: “What happens when a specific technology meets an enterprise determined to address a social need in the territory?”.
In the context of strengthening competitiveness and innovation, Italy has a strong clusters’ ecosystem working at regional and national level to support the industrial, social and research private and public actors. Digital Clusters and enabling organisations, such as Fondazione Piemonte Innova (through its Regional Innovation ICT Cluster “Polo ICT” and the Italian Technology Cluster for Smart Communities) represent a strategic lever for accelerating the growth of enterprises that use technology as a strategic development factor, and support institutions in designing and managing innovation processes, collaborating with ecosystem-driven clusters and enabling organisations, such as Torino Social Impact, in relation to the social economy.
In fact, both entities have been working together in local projects related to the digitalisation of the Social Economy ecosystem (Piemonte Innova is actually a founding member of Torino Social Impact); starting with I3S project – digital innovation for the third sector, which highlighted the need to accelerate the digitalisation process in the Torino area and the Piemonte Region. During an investigation conducted by TSI in 2022 among its partners in the social economy regarding the use of data, it emerged an encouraging response regarding the current use of data (both proprietary and third-party) for project development, decision-making support, and measurement. Additionally, the following specific needs emerged: urban statistics, consumer statistics, digital usage, better understanding of the demographics of micro-communities, information about companies that provide these services, timely updates on social needs, data on the effects of social policies. Much progress has been made in the last few years, but the digital and data-driven approach still needs to be adopted and implemented by many social economy organisations, to allow them to compete, be more effective and generate a lasting and more meaningful impact.
These themes are also at the core of SocialTech4EU, a two-year project co-funded by the European Union under the Joint Cluster Initiatives (EUROCLUSTERS) . In 2022, 30 Euroclusters have been launched to implement the EU Industrial Strategy, as cross-sectoral, interdisciplinary and trans-European strategic initiatives of industry clusters and other economic actors. SocialTech4EU project was led by Torino Social Impact, alongside consortium leader Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini. It aimed to strengthen the resilience, innovation capacity, competitiveness and sustainability of social economy ecosystems, particularly supporting start-ups and SMEs in the social economy, with a strong focus on technology social ventures.
The project initially involved a survey conducted across 23 European countries. The results from Italy highlighted a diverse landscape in terms of digital maturity: 35% are in an ad-hoc (initial) state, 32% have defined digitalization as a priority and are planning for new solutions, 26% have managed to implement digital solutions at various levels and 7% have reached an optimized state, actively monitoring and leveraging technology.
Regarding the “Innovation priorities and barriers”, the top innovation priorities for Italian social enterprises are implementing new tech tools (68%), training (55%), creating a culture of innovation (42%), developing innovation infrastructure (39%) and learning how to create an innovation strategy (35%). However, these organizations face significant barriers in their pursuit of innovation and digitalization: lack of budget (cited by 62% of organizations), insufficient skills and training (48%), lack of innovation culture (35%), limited technical expertise (30%) and resistance to change (25%).
These and many other relevant survey results have played a crucial role in shaping financial support schemes for education, innovation, and acceleration, as well as informing the broader activities designed to support social enterprises across the EU within SocialTech4EU.
Currently, the DO Impact project coordinated by FPI and with Torino Social Impact as a partner, supports the digitalisation needs of the Social Economy stakeholders by fostering the up-skilling and re-skilling of digital and data-driven approaches as enablers of the potential of the social economy actors and ecosystems.
In fact, the first Transnational Workshop for SEEOs, organised by the DO Impact project, will take place in Torino. The city is well recognised at regional, national and international level as a unique experience of multiplayer collaboration on different sectors and topics, and where social economy actors have a key role and are fully integrated in the development policies. Turin is currently the 2024-25 European Capital of Innovation, the city stands out for its ability to create opportunities, foster inclusion, and improve the quality of life for its residents. This award is a demonstration that innovation is about making meaningful changes that benefit all and not only about technology implementation. The title is awarded by the European Commission to cities that stand out for their commitment in innovation and urban transformation. Furthermore, Torino is also the 2025 European Capital of Smart Tourism, meaning that it is an example city, full of initiatives that highlight its achievements in accessibility, sustainability, digitalisation, and cultural heritage. These forward-thinking efforts not only enhance the visitor experience but also set a new benchmark for other destinations. These awards recognise the path that has made Torino a dynamic and open ecosystem, capable of tackling contemporary challenges through technology, sustainability and inclusion, involving institutions, companies, start-ups, research centres and citizens.
We welcome you to Torino to explore our innovative and social economy enabling ecosystem!
