Descubriendo el ADN de los innovadores sociales: una revisión de literatura enfocada en la identificación de sus capacidades y habilidades

Introduction: Given the demands posed by the current social landscape, there is an imperative to enhance the understanding of the concept of social innovation and to delineate the capacities and skills required by social innovators to facilitate their development. Methodology: This research consists of a literature review focusing on scientific articles from the Scopus database. The main findings reveal that, at a conceptual level, innovation has evolved from an economic perspective towards a broader social orientation, emphasizing cross-sector collaboration among various actors. Results: The importance of establishing theoretical boundaries between social innovation and social entrepreneurship is highlighted, as the scientific literature has predominantly focused on understanding the latter. Conclusions: Among the capacities and skills of social innovators, the following are highlighted: leadership, creative thinking, risk tolerance, psychological capital, political skills, among other elements that comprise the human dimension of social innovation. Furthermore, a reference framework is generated to classify these capacities and skills considering psychological, sociological, and demographic factors.