Reumo
The increase in the world’s inequality levels has called into question how much and if innovation can help solving current global challenges (Lundvall, 2017; Stiglitz, 2016). Part of this discussion comes from the fact that innovation has historically been focused on dominant contexts (Van der Have & Rubalcaba, 2016). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has also brought additional urgency to the role of innovation and the importance of looking at smaller contexts (Korsgaard, Hunt, Townsend, & Ingstrup, 2020; Monsen, Arndt, Conger, Brown, Mueller, Dickes, Barber, Bedo, Vedula, Roundy, Theodoraki, Jolley, & Lyons, 2021), as it made societal problems, local weaknesses, and political ambiguities more visible (Barbier & Burgess, 2020; Korsgaard, Hunt, Townsend, & Ingstrup, 2020). Thus, this essay proposes to address smaller contexts, namely the groups of businesses that – albeit larger in number – are still “smaller” when it comes to the literature’s focus and attention. Thus, we believe that such discussion may help in the construction of insights that may allow researchers and practitioners alike to make sense of smaller contexts that have so far been little explored, and by doing so we hope to provide ways of thinking about social reality in a sustainable way through innovation. We formulated a categorization of the literature and proposed a framework that reflects innovation in smaller contexts. Thus, we believe that such a discussion can help build insights that allow researchers and practitioners to understand smaller contexts that have so far been little explored and, in doing so, we hope to provide ways of thinking about social reality in a sustainable way through innovation.