As a social innovation researcher and nonprofit board chair, I operate where business and society intersect, helping organizations and their stakeholders innovate to create impact.
Doctoral study
My recent PhD explored the emerging construct of "innovation for growth" in nonprofits.
The nonprofit innovation project
The critical nonprofit sector faces unique innovation hurdles.
Integrating a global systematic-literature review and predominantly Australian interview- and survey-director research, this project identifies and unlocks the new construct of “innovation for growth” in nonprofits, defined as “innovation activities undertaken in the pursuit of revenue growth”.
It advances innovation and governance scholarship by revealing nonprofit innovation’s sector specificity, conceptualizing multifactorial associations, and using uncommon research methodologies and rare director-/ Australian-sample data.
It also offers practical guidance to nonprofit boards and policymakers on enhancing nonprofit-innovation governance, so helping safeguard organizational and sectoral viability and generating flow-on benefits for stakeholders and society at large.
The findings of this project were presented at four national and international pracademic conferences and one American university seminar to second-year public-policy PhD students. They were also shared in four coauthored global journal articles (three published, one under review).
Current projects
Right now, I am researching several connected areas that build on my PhD nonprofit leadership study.
These post-PhD projects explore and expand on the themes of my doctoral investigation into nonprofit innovation for growth.
Social innovation leadership in nonprofit industry associations
In 2024, presented early insights of my research on the levers and multilevel impacts of effective social innovation leadership to a diverse audience at a social impact conference in Bulgaria.
And I have now detailed this study and its findings in a comprehensive paper that is currently under peer review.
Nonprofit innovation for growth practice implications
In this project, I develop guidance for nonprofit boards on how to successfully pursue growth-directed innovation.
In the associated article, which is under journal submission, I shere previously unpublished and first-in-field evidence-based advice and tools for boards to help them foster effective nonprofit innovation.
Nonprofit innovation for growth policy implications
In this study, I assess the current landscape for nonprofit innovation in three Anglo-Saxon countries.
I analyze their policy and regulatory innovation frameworks and evidence and draw on directors' views and experience on legislated mechanisms and their impact from my PhD interviews and survey.
In the associated article, which is currently in development, I highlight governance regulation’s positive impact on innovation generally and offer policy and regulatory reform ideas to encourage growth-directed innovation in nonprofits.
