Disruptors in a time of disruption: Social innovation in the Australian disability sector

This sector-wide, survey-based study applies complexity theory and a set-theoretic method to uncover the complex causality underlying the development of social innovations by non-profit organisations (NPOs). The study focuses on NPOs in the Australian disability sector currently grappling with profound disruption due to the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and consequently facing increasing pressure to exploit novel avenues for learning and adaptability to create social value in more effective and efficient ways (Connellan, 2014; Hallahan, 2013). While NPOs contend with complexities stemming from their external environments (i.e. competing needs of multiple stakeholders and volatility of funding sources), internally-derived complexity is also important for understanding how NPOs function as complex systems comprised of combinations of interdependent parts whose outcomes (social innovations) cannot be adequately inferred through analysing their parts in isolation (Meyer et al., 1993).